


Shifty Business

by lezcheck



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-02-25 09:14:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 51,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22189873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lezcheck/pseuds/lezcheck
Summary: AU. Lena's the CEO of her brother's company after he takes an extended vacation in federal custody; Kara's the journalist who gets doored by Lena on her way to work. Will Kara get the scoop? Will they keep it professional, or will there be romance? Is there an undercurrent of something else happening here? Let's find out.
Relationships: Kara Danvers & Lena Luthor, Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 134
Kudos: 312





	1. You Doored Her, Lady

On a normal morning, Lena would never have opened the car door on the street side. She would have exited the car directly in front of her destination after George opened the door for her, declining as she always did his offered hand. She would have gracefully stepped out of the backseat under her own power, making it look easy in a skirt suit and heels.

But this morning hadn’t been normal.

First, a conference call with Hong Kong had run over ten minutes, which had Jess knocking on her door. Lena never liked running behind, but the project leads were at a particularly delicate juncture. The chemistry of the call was so good, she didn’t want to hang up without feeling confident that they were on the right path, so she waved Jess off. By the time it was over, Sam was practically yanking her from her chair while she stabbed at the elevator button.

Next, her company car had suffered a flat tire when pulling up to the entrance of L-Corp to take her and Sam to their meeting, the second of three in a proposed acquisition of a small R&D company. Despite George’s protestations that he could put on the spare in less than 5 minutes, Sam had hailed an Uber.

Lena had never been inside an Uber, mostly because she had never needed to be. Her car service was retained during business hours and on call during the rest of the day, but Sam was insistent that they not be late.

“We’re acquiring this company, not the other way around. They can wait,” Lena said as they got in the backseat, but Sam just grunted, already scrolling through emails on her phone. Lena sighed and buckled her seat belt.

Overall, the ride wasn’t terrible, but she missed the familiarity of her own car. The driver, reading the room, didn’t attempt to engage either of them in conversation. The mid-morning traffic in National City meant that the driver pulled over across the street from their destination with just six minutes to spare.

“Is here okay, or do you want me to go around the block?”

By then, the afterglow from helping Hong Kong solve a complex engineering problem had worn off, and Lena’s natural aversion to being late had reasserted itself.

“Here’s fine,” Sam said, already opening her door on the side near the curb. An irritated horn blast from a car behind them triggered a feeling of impatience in Lena and added to her strong desire to get out of the car. Instead of scooting across the entire backseat, a task that would have been made harder by the cloth seats rather than the smooth leather of her own car, Lena opened her door and began to step out.

She flinched at the shout that turned into a scream and the loud thud as something collided with the door, the left side of her torso, and her leg.

Lena froze, still holding on to the door handle as she staggered backward, trying to make sense of what had just happened. What was _still_ happening. As if in slow motion, she watched as a blur of red and blue flew over the top of her open door and crash landed on the road several feet ahead. A bicycle with a slightly bent front wheel remained behind Lena’s door.

The cyclist’s body lay unmoving, half in the crosswalk and half in the lane of cross traffic. The light facing Lena was red. A quick glance toward the opposing traffic showed Lena a bored commuter in the driver’s seat looking at his phone, and then startling as the cars behind him honked as the light turned green.

Lena’s brain processed all of this data in a split second and came to a conclusion. Without thinking or planning, she wrenched herself upright and out of the car, kicked off her heels, and sprinted toward the cyclist, ignoring Sam’s scream of “LENA!” She stopped in front of the cyclist and glared at the driver of the car. She was rewarded with the sound of squealing tires that seemed to echo the urgency in her brain as the car halted halfway into the intersection.

Once she was sure that the car had stopped and would remain so, she turned to look at the cyclist, who still hadn’t moved. She lay on her back, a slim woman in red shorts and a blue tank top. Her eyes were closed, a grey bike helmet askew but still firmly atop her head, the chin strap snug under her jaw. On her shoulders was a backpack that had ridden up and upon which her head and neck rested, almost like a pillow. She could have been taking a nap, except for the incongruous setting and the pair of glasses that lay a couple feet away, with one bow broken off.

Lena’s heart was in her throat, all thoughts of her and Sam’s meeting fled. She knelt down. A first-aid training course she had taken in college seemed years in the past, and all she remembered was _don’t try to move her_ and _check if she’s breathing._ Yes, and yes. She pulled out her phone to dial 911.

“Lena!” Sam ran up to her. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah.”

In the distance, they heard the rapidly approaching sound of sirens.

The noise seemed to rouse the woman, who opened her eyes.

“What happened?” She tried to sit up, and winced.

“Don’t try to move,” Lena said. “You’ve had an accident. Emergency services are on the way.”

“Okay.” The woman’s eyes closed.

“Hey. Are you awake?”

There was no answer.

Lena and Sam exchanged a glance.

“I guess she’s unconscious. Should we try to wake her up?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know,” Lena said. “I think people with concussions aren’t supposed to sleep, but honestly, I don’t know how to tell if she has one or not.” The sounds of the sirens grew closer, and they looked behind them to see an ambulance edging around the snarled traffic.

“I’ll call Marty and tell him we’ll need to reschedule,” Sam said, reaching for her phone.

“No, don’t,” Lena said. “You keep the meeting.”

“What about you?”

The ambulance pulled to a stop in front of them and two EMTs emerged from the cab. One came over to where Lena and Sam knelt, while the other opened the doors in back to pull out a backboard and a stretcher.

“I’ll stay with her and ride along to the hospital. Is that okay?” she addressed the EMT, who nodded while checking the cyclist’s vital signs.

“Need to call Alex,” mumbled the cyclist, roused by the taking of her pulse.

“We’ll call Alex for you on the way. Can you tell me his phone number?” the EMT said.

There was no reply.

“Pulse strong and steady, intermittent consciousness,” the EMT called out into a radio attached to his uniform.

The other EMT brought the backboard around and she produced a pair of scissors. Lena looked on in confusion until the EMT gently but efficiently cut the bike helmet’s chin strap and the straps on the backpack. Her partner extricated both from the cyclist’s body and set the items to the side. They worked as a team to secure a cervical collar around her neck and gently slid the backboard under her body. They fastened leg straps and a belt around her waist, counted to three, and lifted the backboard onto the stretcher.

The entire operation took less than two minutes, though to Lena, it had felt like an hour.

“Bring her stuff,” said the second EMT as they wheeled the stretcher around to the back of the ambulance.

“Right,” Lena said, picking up the backpack and helmet. She also picked up the broken glasses, and after a moment’s consideration, the snapped-off bow, and slid them into a side mesh pocket in the backpack.

Sam picked up Lena’s heels. “Do you want me to take these?”

“No, I’ve got them,” Lena said, shifting her load to accept the shoes.

The EMTs slid the stretcher into the ambulance, and one emerged from the back to jog around to the driver’s seat.

“Wheels up, lady,” she called over her shoulder.

Sam snorted.

“It’s fine,” Lena said. “Go acquire a company for us. You’ve got this.”

“Oh, I know I’ve got this. Do you want me to call Gary for you? Never hurts to have a lawyer around, _lady.”_

“No, not yet,” Lena said, smiling. She walked around in her stocking feet to climb into the back of the ambulance.

Sam gasped. “Lena, your leg.”

Lena glanced down as she loaded her things into the back. Her left leg was red and starting to purple around the edges, the nylon stocking ripped and shredded where the bicycle tire had collided with it.

“It’s fine,” she said. In truth, she had been too full of adrenaline to even feel it, though she now noticed it starting to throb. “Anyway, I’m headed to a hospital.” She paused.

“Be careful crossing the street.”

Lena hoisted herself into the back and took a seat along the back wall. She waved to Sam as the EMT closed the back doors.

“Can you tell me what happened?” the EMT asked, as the driver turned on the sirens and pulled away.

“She was on a bike. I opened the car door. And then…” Lena wasn’t in the habit of trailing off in the middle of sentences, but the memory of the startling impact that came out of nowhere was still fresh.

“You doored her,” the EMT supplied.

“Doored?”

“When a car opens the door and you run into it. On a bike. It happens if you’re too close to parked cars. Sometimes traffic edges you over, sometimes people don’t look before they open the doors. It’s not uncommon.”

“Will she be okay?” Lena asked.

“Her vitals are strong, but I can’t really say much more right now.”

“Because I’m not family?”

He shook his head. “No. Well, probably that too, but mostly because she’s unconscious. They’ll have to assess any brain function or possible spinal trauma at the hospital. I’m monitoring her blood pressure, her pulse and her oxygen levels, and they’re all strong.”

Lena also wasn’t in the habit of feeling faint, but it seemed that today was a day of firsts.

“Spinal trauma,” she whispered, hugging herself. The thought that a split second mistake could possibly cost this woman her mobility shook her. Lena lived every minute of her life deliberately, thinking three or four steps ahead. The one time she had a moment of careless inattention, disaster struck. Her breathing increased.

“Hey, don’t freak out yet,” the EMT said. “It’s just one possibility. And she had a great bike helmet. It’s toast now, of course. Put your head between your legs.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You’re starting to hyperventilate. Put your head between your knees and breathe in slowly, so you don’t faint. Don’t go into shock. This girl needs you calm.”

Lena followed his directions and breathed. She heard a cracking sound and looked up.

“Ice pack,” said the EMT. “For your leg.”

Lena accepted the ice pack and winced as it touched the tender bruise.

“What a mess I am,” she said. “I’m not even the one who was badly hurt.”

“Accidents like this shake you up, no matter which end of it you’re on.” The EMT lapsed into silence, rechecking the readouts of vital signs on his equipment.

Lena took in another breath. She decided that doing something useful might help take her mind off her almost-panic attack, and opened up the backpack that lay at her feet.

Sifting through the contents, she saw a notebook, food in a tupperware container, rolled-up clothing, and finally, what she had been looking for - a phone. She brought it up and tapped the home screen button.

The phone was locked, of course, and Lena didn’t know the passcode. She thought the paramedic might look askance at her if she reached for the unconscious woman’s finger to unlock it, so she tapped “Emergency” in the corner, hoping.

On the lower left-hand side of the Emergency screen was a red star and the words “Medical ID.” She tapped it, and pulled up a page of information.

_Kara Danvers_  
_September 22, 1992_

Lena scrolled past the information about blood type, weight, allergies - none known - to the bottom.

_Emergency Contacts_

_emergency_  
_Alex Danvers_

The cyclist - Kara - had mentioned an Alex during her brief lucid period. This must be him. Lena tapped on the the phone number, and the call connected. After a couple of rings, someone answered, with a cacophony of voices and background noise buzzing in the background

“Hey Kara, listen, this isn’t a great time right now. Can I call you back in a couple of hours?”

It was a woman’s voice, which gave Lena momentary pause.

“May I speak to Alex Danvers?”

“This is Alex. Who is this? Where’s Kara?”

“Ms. Danvers, I’m calling to tell you that Kara has been in an accident. She’s on her way to the hospital.”

There was brief silence on the other end of the line, but then a clipped voice replied.

“Understood. Which hospital?”

Lena leaned over to the EMT. “Where are we headed?”

“National City General. We’re about five minutes out”

Lena relayed this information to Alex.

“Are you one of the paramedics?”

“No,” she said, hesitating. “I’m...I’m riding with her in the ambulance. I caused the accident.” She winced internally, hearing Gary’s voice in her ear - _don’t admit fault!_ \- but it was the truth.

More silence.

“Put the EMT on the line.”

Lena passed the phone to the EMT, who accepted it and held it up to his ear.

“Hello.”

“Yes. No. Vitals are stable. I don’t think so. Doored. Pulling in. Roger that.” He hung up the phone and handed it back to Lena.

The ambulance pulled into the driveway of the emergency bay and stopped. From there, it was a blur of motion with Lena scrambling to keep up, carrying her heels and Kara’s things in an awkward armload as the EMTs offloaded the stretcher and entered the hospital.

Lena stood by as the EMTs spoke to the triage nurse, who was taking down the details and inputting them into a computer.

“What’s her name?” the nurse asked, scratching at the scruff of his beard.

The EMT looked at Lena.

She cleared her throat. “Kara Danvers.”

“You a relative?”

“No.” Lena paused. It seemed to complicated, not to mention irrelevant, to go into the whole story. “Friend.”

The EMT shot her a grin. She raised her eyebrows at him and shrugged.

The nurse typed something into the computer, and leaned over the stretcher.

“Kara! Kara, wake up,” he said, much more loudly than normal speaking volume.

Lena was startled. Why weren’t they rushing Kara into an MRI machine, or inserting an IV, or any of the other things she recalled watching on television shows about emergency rooms? Why was everyone so calm?

Kara stirred, and opened her eyes.

“What?” she said groggily.

“Can you tell me your name?” said the nurse.

“Kara Danvers.”

“What’s today’s date?”

“September 16.”

“Who’s the President?”

Kara groaned. “Don’t make me say his name.”

“You go, girl,” said the nurse.

Kara blinked at that, and looked around the room with her eyes, since her neck was immobilized. She made eye contact with Lena. Lena noticed a quirk of amusement in her expression.

Despite herself, Lena found herself smiling back. If the woman - _Kara_ \- could smirk at a total stranger, then maybe she wasn’t badly hurt. Lena felt a little of the tightness around her shoulders release a bit.

Of course, it could just mean that she was brain damaged.

A woman in a doctor’s coat approached the stretcher, and the triage nurse handed her a clipboard, which she scanned.

“Kara Danvers,” she said. “I’m Doctor Duncan. You’ve had quite a morning.”

“Uh. I guess?” Kara said.

Dr. Duncan removed a penlight from her pocket and switched it on. She shone it into Kara’s eyes, who flinched at the brightness. She couldn’t move her head, though, so she closed her eyes.

The doctor put the penlight back in her pocket. “Open your eyes, please? No more flashlight, I promise.”

Kara opened one eye warily, then the other one.

“How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Two.”

“Now how many?”

“Four.”

“Follow my finger with your eyes, left to right.” Kara complied.

“Do you feel that?” Dr. Duncan squeezed her foot.

“Yes.”

“How about that one?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” said the doctor, writing something down on the clipboard. “We’re going to get you off this backboard and set you up in treatment room three to run a few tests.”

Lena followed as an orderly pushed Kara’s stretcher down a hallway. “Treatment room” was a stretch, she thought, when the orderly and doctor arrived at a section of the hall and pulled back some curtains. She stayed back out of the way as they undid the straps holding Kara to the backboard and removed the cervical collar.

“We’re going to lift you onto this bed,” said the EMT. “On three. One, two…”

Lena watched as Kara was transferred to the hospital bed. Once finished, the orderly left and another nurse came in, attaching a blood pressure cuff to Kara’s arm, while the doctor busied herself with a chart. The room was getting crowded. The EMT picked up the backboard, lay it back on the stretcher, and started to wheel it out. As he passed Lena, he gave her a little salute.

“Good luck.”

Lena frowned after him, wondering what he meant. She walked over to the chair and put down Kara’s things. As an afterthought, she dropped her heels on the ground underneath the chair.

The curtain of the treatment room was suddenly flung back.

Standing there with an intense look in her eyes was a tall woman with short red hair. It was shaved on one side, the type of trendy haircut Lena admired but knew she could never pull off herself. Lena’s eyes were drawn not to the haircut, though it was striking, but to the badge clipped to her belt and visible beneath her blazer.

The _police_ were here? Maybe she should have called Gary after all.

“Kara,” the woman said. “My god. Are you okay?”

“Hey, Alex,” Kara said. “I’ve had better days. But I’m fine.” She smiled at the woman, who crossed the room in two strides and gripped her hand.

“What happened?”

Kara managed to look sheepish. “I was late for work. The light had just turned red. I thought I could make it.”

Alex blew out a breath that was equal parts relief and frustration.

“I know,” Kara said, forestalling whatever Alex had been about to say. “Believe me, I won’t do it again.”

“I’m just so glad you’re okay. When I think about what could have happened…” Alex’s voice seemed to catch a little.

“Please don’t cry. I don’t think I could handle that right now,” Kara said, giving Alex a watery smile.

Lena watched, feeling like an outsider and an intruder - which she was, she supposed. She was surprised to find herself feeling a little lonely, as well. If she were ever in an accident herself, then she was sure that Sam, Jess, or even Gary would be at the hospital right away, full of legitimate concern. But she knew that neither of them would have the same almost-panicked look in their eyes, brimming with concern and love.

Lena hadn’t had that type of relationship in a long time.

The nurse had finished with Kara’s vital signs and was holding more paperwork.

“And who is the family here?” she asked.

“I am,” Alex said. “Alex Danvers.”

Lena hoped the nurse wouldn’t make the same mistake that people always made in situations like this and assume that the two were sisters. It was fairly obvious that they were partners or spouses, and Lena found herself mentally bracing herself for the mistaken assumption.

“Hi Alex, I’m Julie. Could you fill out some paperwork for your partner?” Julie asked.

“Sure. And we’re sisters.”

“Oops. Sorry.”

“No problem. We get that a lot,” Alex said, accepting the clipboard and a pen. “It drives my wife crazy.”

The nurse laughed, and Kara rolled her eyes, then winced.

“Okay, we’re going to take Kara for a couple of tests - we suspect a concussion,” Doctor Duncan said. “It will take about half an hour, and then we’ll be back. Spinal damage we’ve ruled out, though you may have a sore neck,” she said, addressing Kara. “Then your sister here can work on all this fun paperwork in peace while we’re gone.”

“I live for paperwork,” said Alex. “See you in a bit, kiddo.”

“Don’t call me kiddo.”

With that, Kara was wheeled out of the room and Lena was left with this imposing stranger who hadn’t so much as glanced her way since she had arrived.

“So. You doored my sister,” Alex stated, moving Kara’s things from the chair and sitting down.

Lena nodded. “I am so sorry.”

She fought the urge to explain how her morning had been delayed, how she wasn’t used to not being in her own car. She felt that excuses wouldn’t carry much water with this woman anyway.

“No doubt,” Alex said. “I’ll bet you’ll never open a car door again without checking first.”

“I may never ride in a car again.”

Alex let out a short bark of laughter, surprising Lena.

“The EMT told me on the phone she was probably fine, and the doctor here pretty much confirmed it,” Alex said. “Otherwise you and I would be having a very different conversation right now.”

Lena nodded. She appreciated Alex’s directness. She knew that she had high-powered attorneys at her back who could protect her from almost anything, even if a National City detective’s sister was involved. But she was glad she wouldn’t have to invoke them, because not only did she know she bore some responsibility for Kara’s accident, she simply didn’t want to.

She liked this woman. And though Lena hadn’t really talked to Kara at all, she had appreciated her banter with Alex even in her weakened state, and their shared moment of amusement in triage.

Alex had lifted Kara’s backpack, frowning at the straps.

“They had to cut them to get her on the backboard,” Lena said.

“Aw, crap. Kara just got this backpack. She was celebrating her new job. Oh well, it’s only a thing,” Alex said. She opened the backpack, rifled through the contents, and pulled out Kara’s wallet.

“Thank you for calling me, by the way,” Alex said.

“Of course. I was glad she had filled out the Emergency Medical ID on her phone.”

“I made her do that,” Alex said, filling in the information on the clipboard. “But thanks for riding with her to the hospital. You didn’t have to.”

“I felt responsible.”

“It was more than most people would have done,” Alex said. “Believe me, I’ve seen it.”

“I’m sure that’s true.” Lena couldn’t even begin to wonder about the things a city detective must have seen.

Alex was flipping through Kara’s wallet with a deepening frown.

“Is something wrong?”

“Her health insurance card,” Alex said. “It’s expired. Don’t tell me…”

“What?”

“She just started her new job a couple of weeks ago,” Alex said. “Her health insurance doesn’t start until the first of next month. I told her to COBRA from her old job, but unless she just doesn’t have the card, that means she’s uninsured.” She sighed and pinched the space between her eyes.

Lena didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry.”

“Thanks,” Alex said. “We’ll figure it out, but dammit. I told her not to go without, even for a month, but sometimes I think Kara thinks she’s made of steel or something. Ugh.”

Lena was quiet. She was familiar with the state of health care policy in the United States, but seldom saw situations like this in person. She made sure everyone who worked for L-Corp had top of the line insurance, from the vice presidents to the secretaries to the janitors. She had vague positive thoughts about nationalized health care, but hadn’t ever really been confronted with the reality of it.

Lena’s phone rang. It was Sam.

“Could you excuse me for a moment?” she asked. Alex just waved at her, turning back to the clipboard.

Lena stepped out. “Sam.”

“Hey! How are you? How is she?” Sam’s voice buzzed over the phone.

“Apparently fine, I think? A possible concussion,” Lena said. “How was the meeting?”

“Great,” Sam said. “We agreed on most of the terms - pending your approval, of course - and Marty said he’s looking forward to signing the papers next week.”

“Fantastic,” Lena said. “Thanks for handling it.”

“You bet. Are you coming back to the office today?”

“In a bit. I’ll have George pick me up.”

“No more Ubers, huh?”

“Never again,” Lena said. “See you soon.”

She walked back into the room, where Alex had finished up with the clipboard and was staring across the room with a frown, as if she were trying to figure something out. She looked up when Lena entered.

“Listen, you don’t have to hang around here,” Alex said. “I’ve got this, and I’m sure you have places to be.”

Lena felt a little disappointed, though she internally acknowledged the logic. Kara had her sister. She didn’t need a stranger hovering around her hospital bed.

“Right,” she said. “I’ll go, then. Here’s my card.” She removed a stiff white business card from a case in her bag, embossed with the L-Corp logo in gold, and her contact information in black.

Well, her secretary’s contact information. She took out a pen, also, and wrote on the back.

“Here’s my mobile phone, in case you need to reach me. Any time of the day or night.”

Alex accepted the card and put it in her pocket with a nod of thanks.

Lena hesitated. She wanted to ask Alex to keep her posted on Kara’s condition, but it seemed like the detective had a lot on her mind, and she didn’t want to add to her burden.

“Goodbye, then.”

“Wait.”

Lena turned around.

“Are these yours?”

Alex held up the pair of heels, dangling from her two fingers.

Lena flushed. “Whoops. Yes.”

Alex laughed a little.

“They definitely aren’t Kara’s.”

She took the shoes, and nodded.

On her way out, she stopped by the admitting desk, and had a brief conversation with the clerk. After reaching an understanding and agreement, she exited the emergency room and texted George to come pick her up.

****

When Lena returned to her office, despite all the urgent priorities that needed her attention right away given her hours-long absence, she pulled Jess aside and gave her some specific instructions with a list of things to do.


	2. Too Much

At 8:30am on September 22, Lena was already an hour into her workday and elbow-deep in paperwork. When Jess buzzed her and said, “Ms. Luthor, Kara Danvers is on the line for you,” it took her a moment to connect the dots and remember the events of six days ago.

“Ms. Luthor? Should I put her through?”

Lena blinked. 

“Yes. Thank you, Jess.”

There was a pause, and then Kara’s voice came through the speakerphone. 

“Hello?”

“Ms. Danvers. How is your head?”

“Hi! It’s great - much better. I was back at work after just two days. And please, call me Kara. I was calling you because, well, I received a package this morning. Alex said it wasn’t from her.”

“Yes?” Lena allowed some amusement to thread through her voice.

“So it _was_ from you! Wow, thank you so much. This is a really great backpack. It’s even nicer than the one I had before. I tried to superglue the straps back together, but that didn’t work out so well. I superglued my fingers to it. And it didn’t hold, anyway - they should really call it mediocre glue.”

Lena couldn’t suppress a low laugh, less at the joke itself, and more at the stream of consciousness that had spilled out from Kara. Most of Lena’s conversations these days were either clipped, careful discussions with the board of L-Corp, most of whom didn’t trust her and weren’t yet on board with her vision of transforming the company, or with the R&D teams to which she was providing guidance as she transitioned from her former post leading their department to CEO of the entire company.

The board didn’t hold back any of their skepticism or attempts to bully her, while her engineers were careful in how they spoke, aware that she was now the big boss. It had been a while since she’d had anyone talk to her without hostility or trepidation, other than Jess, who was friendly in her focused and task-oriented way. 

It was lonely. But Kara was refreshing.

“Well, you’re quite welcome,” Lena replied. “I’m glad you like it.”

“I love it,” Kara said. “You didn’t have to do this, you know. But thank you. I really appreciate it.”

Lena felt a tug, like she wanted to keep talking, but a glance at the pile of contracts on her desk reminded her that duty was calling. 

“Have a great day, Kara. Take care.”

“You too! Bye!”

The line went dead, and Lena picked up the contract she had been in the middle of, finding her place. She quickly sank back into scanning the document for any clauses, milestones or other gotchas that would expose L-Corp to unwanted obligations or liabilities.

Her general counsel had assured her that the contract was fair, but Lena’s approach to her new role as CEO was as thorough as her approach to any engineering project she had ever worked on. If she understood the foundational details, it made understanding the bigger picture much easier.

It also eliminated the chance for surprises of the unwelcome variety.

About ten minutes more passed before her buzzer sounded again.

“Yes?”

Jess’s voice came over the intercom. “Ms. Luthor, it’s Kara Danvers on the line again. Do you want me to handle it?”

Lena smiled. Jess’s gatekeeping abilities were legendary, and she didn’t allow people to distract Lena, especially when she was engaged in a task that required her full attention. 

“No, thank you Jess. Put her through.”

There was a pause as Jess transferred the call.

“Hi, again!” said Kara from the speakerphone. 

“Hello. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Is this helmet from you too? It was just delivered.”

“Yes,” Lena confirmed. 

“Are you kidding? Thank you. This is top of the line.” Kara’s voice had a trace of awe.

“It’s supposed to provide exceptional protection,” Lena said. “In case of a crash, it reduces the rotation of the cyclist’s head due to the impact, which means lower risk of concussion or traumatic brain injury. Their design looked solid, although I think if they used different materials for the internal cage system, it could be both stronger and lighter.”

“Do you ride?”

“No. I’m interested in how things are made, though.”

“Well, thank you very much. This feels like too much, though. I know what these helmets cost. You don’t have to buy me anything just because of the accident. I’m fine, really. And I’m not going to sue you.” Kara sounded hesitant. 

“Oh, I don’t think you are,” Lena said. “That’s not what this is.” 

She felt a little stung by the comment, though she couldn’t really blame Kara for thinking that. She would have thought the exact same thing, and probably sooner, if their positions had been reversed. 

“Okay,” Kara said. “I’ll let you go, then.”

“Take care.”

Lena pressed her lips together. When she had arranged for Jess to send the items to Kara, she hadn’t necessarily considered how it would appear to the woman on the receiving end - like she was trying to buy her off. She had just known that from the EMT’s comments, that the helmet was now unusable, and it was clear the backpack had been ruined. 

It was also true that Lena didn’t fear a lawsuit from Kara - she hadn’t sensed a litigious vibe from either her or her sister, and if Lena could detect anything, it was potential lawsuits. She had simply wanted to make amends, and was in a position financially to be able to do so.

But now she was second-guessing her actions.

The buzzer.

“Ms. Luthor, it’s Kara Danvers - again?” Jess phrased it as a question.

“Put her through.”

“A bike?” came the incredulous query from the speakerphone.

Lena winced. 

“Yes,” she replied, not letting any trace of uncertainty creep into her voice.

“Lena,” Kara said. Lena noticed that this was the first time that Kara had actually said her name. It was also the first time in a while that she had been called anything other than ‘Ms. Luthor.’ “I don’t even know what this bike is. It’s not any brand that I can tell.” Kara sounded flustered, and a little upset.

“It’s custom, made here in the United States,” Lena said. “It’s modeled after city bikes in Europe, but built for performance. It has enclosed drum brakes, a chain guard, and puncture resistant tires. The gears are internal on the rear hub, so you can switch gears at a dead stop, if you need to. It also has daytime running lights on the front and back, which are powered by kinetic energy from the motion of the chain and tires, so you don’t have to remember to charge them. 

“But the best part,” she said with growing enthusiasm, “is the paint. It’s reflective. Any light that shines on the bike is reflected back to the source. It’s incredibly visible.”

Kara was silent for a minute. “Lena, I can’t...Alex told me not to mention this, but I’m pretty sure you also paid my hospital bill.”

“That was the right thing to do, since I was the cause of your ending up in the ER,” Lena said. 

“I’m not really in a position to argue with you about that, since there’s no way I could have paid that bill on my own. But I know about bikes, too. And I can’t even begin to think what something like this might cost. I can’t accept it.”

“Kara, listen. My friend Jack owns a custom cycling company. I called him, we had a conversation, and it turns out he’s been working on making a safer bicycle. It’s undergone rigorous testing and passed with flying colors. Now Jack is working on how to reduce the cost of manufacturing for the mass market without compromising safety, and I’m going to help him. After we settled that, he was only too happy to let me have one of the final prototypes. It didn’t cost me anything.”

“I’m not sure if that makes it better or worse,” came the reply after a moment.

Lena felt the sting that came with realizing that she had made a mess of things. She wasn’t used to feeling it in professional settings, and hadn’t had enough of a personal life in the last half-year to notice.

“Well, I can’t force you to accept it, and I’m sorry that I’ve made you uncomfortable. If you don’t want it, then I’ll have someone come by to pick it up.”

“No, that’s okay,” Kara said. “I have to leave for work now anyway. Would it be okay if I dropped it off at your office? My work isn’t far.”

“Sure, that would be fine,” Lena said. “You can leave it with my secretary, Jess. I’ll make sure she calls downstairs so you can be let up.”

“Okay. Thank you.” Kara’s voice was small, nothing like the exuberant girl who had first called her half an hour ago after receiving a backpack. The line went dead.

Lena sighed. Clearly, she had botched this.

****

Lena worked like a dervish for the next three hours, burying herself in contracts and conference calls to try to bury the memory of the phone conversation. If she was a little more impatient and terse on the phone, well, that only worked to her advantage. She did such a good job of laser-focusing on work that she was thrown when the buzzer sounded yet _again._

“Ms. Luthor? Kara Danvers is here to see you.” Jess usually spoke to her on speakerphone, but she heard the sound of the handset being lifted after that opening sentence.

Thank god for Jess’s instinctive knowledge for when to be discreet.

“You can tell her to just leave the bike out there, Jess. Thank you.”

“She doesn’t have a bicycle with her, Ms. Luthor.”

“Oh?” Lena’s patience was already frayed from tangling with the condescending jerk from her last call, but she resisted the urge to snap at Jess, who didn’t deserve it.

“She said that she’s brought you lunch.”

“What?” Of all the things Lena was expecting to hear, lunch wasn’t it. A cease and desist order for all deliveries cycling-related, maybe, or to be served with a lawsuit, despite what Kara had said. 

Jess lowered her voice. “I think you should see her, Lena.”

Lena sighed. As much as she didn’t want to face Kara and whatever boundary-setting recriminations the woman was likely to subject her to, she figured that she ought to face the music. And if Jess thought it was a good idea, well. Lena trusted Jess.

“All right. Please show her in.”

The door to her office opened, and Lena stood, carefully arranging her face in a mask of polite detachment. 

She wasn’t prepared for the sunny, smiling presence of Kara Danvers. The one and only time she had seen Kara, the woman had been wearing shorts, a tank top and a bike helmet. She had been in and out of consciousness and a little groggy.

This Kara was dressed neatly but casually, in plain-front khaki pants and a striped button-up shirt. A cardigan completed the outfit. Kara’s hair cascaded down her neck to rest atop her shoulders in golden waves. She wore her glasses, though Lena noted that one of the bows was secured to the frames with what looked like dark duct tape that almost, but didn’t quite, match the color.

“Lena, hi!” Kara greeted her, friendliness and cheer in her voice. “I thought we could have lunch together. Is that okay? Can I set it up over here?” She indicated the couch and coffee table area in Lena’s office, not waiting for a reply about whether it was okay.

Lena made eye contact with Jess, trying to communicate _Please interrupt me in 10 minutes with something urgent from overseas that requires my immediate attention_ with just one significant look. 

Jess smiled and closed the door.

“Well, thank you,” Lena said, somewhat at a loss. “Sure. Over there is fine.” She straightened her suit jacket, and walked around her desk over to the couch.

Kara was busy unpacking an assortment of take-out containers, setting them on the table, and opening them. 

“I didn’t know what you liked, so I got a variety. Tofu with spinach, kung pao chicken, shrimp lo mein, broccoli with beef, egg rolls, and pot stickers,” she said with a flourish. She set a plate and plastic fork in front of Lena.

Lena looked at the enormous assortment of food with some amusement.

“How do you know I’m not allergic to peanuts?” she asked. 

Kara looked up, alarmed. “Are you? Jess said you weren’t allergic, or vegetarian.”

_Oh, Jess said, did she?_

“I’m not. I was joking.”

Lena felt a little bad about the joke. It didn’t serve any purpose other than putting Kara on her back foot - highlighting what could have been a presumption on Kara’s part, and designed to throw her off balance. It was a tactic she had learned during business negotiations, but it really had no place here in this non-business meeting.

Lunch.

Whatever.

She resolved not to do it again.

Kara just looked relieved. “Oh, good. Let’s dig in before it gets cold.” She started enthusiastically scooping large amounts of food onto her plate, heedless of overlap, and topped the whole pile with three potstickers that gleamed with grease. 

Lena followed suit, taking smaller portions, but sampling everything. She did her best to not let the different dishes touch each other on the plate, a habit from childhood, and she noticed Kara noticing with some amusement.

“I have to say, I wasn’t expecting you to bring me lunch,” Lena said. “I thought you were angry.”

Kara coughed on a mouthful of food, and swallowed. “Yeah, about that…”

Lena scooped up some tofu and took a bite. 

“Oh my goodness, this is excellent.”

“Right? Best in the city,” Kara said proudly, almost as if she had cooked it herself. 

“So anyway,” she continued. “I rode the bike to work, and Lena, it’s incredible. It’s the best bike I’ve ever been on. It’s light, maneuverable, and the brakes are amazing. Do you know how good this bike is?”

“I only know what Jack told me, and he said that in addition to its high marks in safety, that cyclists who tested it said it was FTR. He had to explain that acronym to me.” 

Kara laughed. “It really is fun to ride. Usually bikes that are built for extreme safety end up being heavier, so they accelerate slower, and don’t turn as quickly or easily. But the frame on this bike is incredibly light.”

“It’s carbon fiber melded with titanium,” Lena said. “A newer formula, though. Part of what I’ll be helping Jack with is producing the frames in quantity. This particular alloy isn’t available wholesale from any of the usual suppliers at a reasonable cost.”

Kara nodded. “This bike is really something special. And I realize that now it sounds like I rode the bike and it’s awesome so I want to keep it, but it’s actually more than that. I thought about it, and I think I was being ungracious. You were being generous, and I was taken aback. And I regret insinuating that you were trying to make sure I didn’t sue you.”

Lena blushed. “Honestly, I feel embarrassed. I didn’t stop to think about how it might come across.”

“That’s part of why I’m here. I wanted to apologize,” Kara said. 

“Accepted. Thank you.”

“And I also have a proposition for you.”

Lena raised an eyebrow.

Kara laughed. “Or a request, anyway. And you’re free to say no, but hear me out. I’m a feature writer for CatCo, and my first piece for my new job is going to be a longform multimedia piece. I’m examining cycling in National City, from the macro level with regard to urban planning and bike lanes, the challenge of retrofitting roads and traffic patterns to accommodate cyclists, and all the way down to the individual level. The responsibilities of individual cyclists and drivers, the changing ethos of who owns the roads, and ways we can all work together to combine safety with efficiency of commutes for everyone. It will be part personal narrative and part urban planning and policy analysis.”

“That sounds very interesting, but I don’t understand where I come in. Do you want to interview me about the accident?” Lena wasn’t sure how she felt about that. She stabbed one of the pot stickers with her plastic fork and took a bite, considering. Her PR team would nix the idea immediately, she was sure.

“No, not at all. About the bike. Maybe this could end up being good for you and your company. This new bike - you said your friend Jack is interested in mass-producing a safer bike?”

“Yes, that’s his goal. He runs a custom bike shop in Portland, focusing on the high end of the market, but his customers are only those who can afford to pay top dollar. He wants everyone to be able to afford a safer bicycle. But he’s a small shop, and my company has more capacity and connections. We're partnering with him to manufacture the raw materials, and to help him find a factory to assemble the finished product.” 

Lena recalled Jack’s excitement in explaining his vision to her, but lamenting the lack of this specific carbon fiber formula in mass quantity. As it was, he could only produce the bike for just under a thousand dollars, and that alone, regardless of the retail markup, would be more than the average person could afford. Her goal had been simply to secure a replacement bike for Kara and she was prepared to take Jack’s advice on what the best and safest bike was and then buy it from him.

But their conversation about carbon fiber and prepreg - carbon fiber that had been impregnated with resin, the raw material for making the bike frame - had captured her interest. Lena had been taken back to some of their shared chemistry classes at MIT as Jack had described to her that the carbon fiber in the prepreg he used was composed of unusually thin strands, and not widely commercially available. 

> _“The thinner the strands, the lower the K value - you know, Lena, viscosity - and the stronger the finished product, because it’s spreading out the load bearing and reducing the ability for any one strand to be a single point of failure. It’s like a high thread count for luxury sheets.”_
> 
> _"Don’t patronize me with your analogies, Jack Spheer. I made better grades than you in organic chemistry and Applied Materials Science.”_
> 
> _“True, but you’ve been hobnobbing with elite corporate executives lately. Just making sure you haven’t lost your edge hanging around all those MBAs.”_
> 
> _The laughter in their tones belied the harshness of their words._
> 
> _“But it’s expensive to do it that way, mostly because for most industrial applications, the K value doesn’t really matter. There’s no incentive for manufacturers to produce high quality prepreg when middling quality is mostly the same. Except for bikes, where every ounce counts. And then bonding with titanium instead of aluminum, and it all adds up to an expensive bike.”_
> 
> _“Maybe I can help you crack that nut,” Lena said._

“That’s what I’d like to interview you about, if you’re willing,” Kara said. “Part of bicycle safety is equipment, after all. Some accidents are caused by faulty brakes, or gears that don’t shift smoothly, or flat tires. Maintenance plays a part, and the commitment of the rider to obeying the rules of the road,” Kara coughed, “but so do economics. Some bigger companies will try to sell bikes that meet the minimum standards and skate by, all toward the goal of making a profit. But if the brakes wear out too fast or the gears won’t shift properly, it puts the rider at risk. It sounds like your company is truly interested in making a safer bike for everyone.”

“L-Corp doesn’t do things for free,” Lena said. “We are a Fortune 500 company, and part of our responsibility to our shareholders is to return value on their investment and to honor the trust they place in our company.” 

As CEO, she felt obligated to state that up front, even though she knew it wasn’t 100% true. It was a popular misconception that corporations, even publicly traded ones, were obligated to maximize profits above all else, and thus, shareholder value. That was a myth that had it genesis in a wave of hostile takeovers in the 1980’s, and had been promulgated by Wall Street analysts and business schools as gospel ever after. The truth was that corporations were free to define their own purpose, as long as all the people in charge of the corporation agreed.

In the last six months Lena had diverted people power and monetary resources toward projects that didn’t stand to return any huge amount of revenue to the company immediately. That was part of the reason she was so at odds with the board of directors, all of whom had been recruited during her brother’s tenure as head of the company. 

But if she said anything that hinted toward where she intended to take L-Corp - to a journalist, no less - and it ended up in print, then she knew she could kiss her tenuous hold on her position as CEO goodbye. While the board couldn't fire her outright, they could make her job difficult enough that she wouldn't be effective.

“Of course,” Kara said. “But the two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Safe bike riders are good for business, right?”

“Repeat customers, sure” Lena said with a laugh. “And off the record, of course…”

“This entire conversation is off the record,” Kara interrupted her. “Today is two people having lunch. If you agree to participate in my article, then we’ll make sure it’s very clear whether we’re having a journalistic conversation, or whether we’re speaking as friends.”

 _Friends?_ Lena let that pass by for the time being. 

“Understood - and I appreciate it. Off the record, I was going to say, I feel a certain amount of personal responsibility now around bike safety. But first, can I also take the opportunity to apologize to you?”

“For what?”

“For causing your accident in the first place,” Lena said. “I didn’t look when I opened the door, and I should have. I’m so sorry.”

Kara smiled. “Thank you. I accept your apology.”

“And I accept your proposition.”

Kara beamed. “You do? That’s so great! Thank you!” She looked surprised, but happy, and shoved an entire pot sticker into her mouth. Somehow, without Lena noticing it, Kara had demolished her entire plate of food during their conversation.

“Yes,” Lena said with a laugh, turning to her own food. “On your way out, I’ll make sure Jess knows about the arrangement, so you don’t have to run the gauntlet every time you need to reach me.”

“That would be great,” Kara said. “Though it was fun talking to her today. She’s great.”

“Yes, she is,” Lena said.

Almost as if on cue, there was a knock on the door.

“Speak of the devil and she doth appear,” Lena said. “Yes, Jess?”

Jess opened the door. “Ms. Luthor, you have ten minutes until your call with Taiwan. Also, I heard that.”

“And with that, Kara, I need to get back to work. But thank you very much for stopping by. And for lunch.”

“You’re welcome,” Kara said, standing and gathering up her plate and napkins to deposit in the trash. 

Lena walked Kara toward the elevator, and pressed the call button.

“Also, Kara - happy birthday.”

Kara turned a surprised look toward her. “Thank you! How did you know?”

“It was on your Medical ID when I called your sister from the ambulance,” Lena admitted.

“You must have an incredible memory,” Kara said. The elevator chimed and the doors opened. She got in and pressed the button for the lobby.

As the doors were closing, she suddenly threw her arm in between them. Obediently, the doors slid open again.

“Wait! The backpack, the helmet, the bike. Were those _birthday presents?”_

Lena blushed a little, but nodded. While she would have sent them regardless, she admitted that the symmetry of them arriving on the actual day had appealed to her. 

“Oh my gosh, Lena. Thank you!” Kara flew out from the elevator to envelop her in a surprising but not unwelcome hug.

“Now I feel even worse about the things I said before,” Kara said, releasing her.

“Let’s agree to move past all of that,” Lena said. “How about this: we’re friends who met in an unorthodox way.”

When Lena said _friends,_ the wattage of Kara’s smile was like the sun. Lena returned the smile because it was impossible not to.

“That’s a deal.”

They had to press the button again for the elevator, which had long since closed.


	3. Hashtag Winning

Lena sat in the chair while the makeup artist who had introduced himself as “Winn, with two ‘n’s” patted her face with extra powder to reduce shine. He was dressed in tight black skinny jeans and a floral short-sleeved shirt buttoned up all the way to the top, his hair slicked up in a combination pompadour/fauxhawk that Lena admired for its precision.

“You don’t actually need much of this, Ms. Luthor,” he murmured as he worked quickly and expertly, bopping to Katy Perry’s “Roar” playing from the bluetooth speaker on the counter. He had told Lena that the song would help make her bold for the interview. She had smiled at that, though she didn’t think boldness was required to talk about materials manufacturing for bicycle production.

“But the lighting we’re using for this webcast is brighter than what you might be used to for TV, so better safe than sorry. I don’t actually think you need any eyeshadow, just a little more eyeliner to make your eyes really pop,” he said, uncapping an eyeliner pencil and sharpening it.

“I can do winged if you want,” he said, after finishing her top and bottom lids. 

“I don’t think that’s really my style, but thank you,” she said with a laugh.

“Do you want to do your own lipstick?”

Lena nodded and removed the lipstick from her purse. Two coffees that morning had worn most of it off, left behind on the rim of the paper takeout cup and then the china mug in her office. 

“Your skin is just like porcelain,” he said, marveling, as he added one last pat of powder to her nose. “It’s like you’ve never missed a day of sunscreen in your life.”

She thought ruefully that it wasn’t diligent use of sunscreen that kept her skin in such untouched condition, so much as it was that she rarely saw the sun. She said as much. 

“Like Drusilla! Or Carmilla. Or Bella, after Edward turned her,” he said.

“Except apparently vampires were just fine in the sun in nearly all of those stories,” Lena said. “Oh, but scratch that last one - I absolutely didn’t read the Twilight series or see any of the movies,” she added.

“Your secret is safe with me.” Winn winked.

“It would be more interesting than the truth,” Lena replied with a smile. “I’m just always working, I’m afraid.”

“Why do you work so much?” Winn asked, rotating Lena’s chair around so she could inspect the final results in the mirror.

“My company takes up most of my time,” Lena said. “I just moved here seven months ago, so I haven’t been able to explore the city much outside of work.”

“Well, I have a solution for that! National City’s hottest new club is The Alien Bar,” Winn said in an exaggerated tone. 

“Club promoter M’gann Moresh has built a hot spot that answers the question ‘What should we do this weekend?’ With signature drinks like the  _ My Favorite Martian _ and the  _ Unidentified Fabulous Object_ , an evening at The Alien Bar will be out of this world. The launch party is Saturday, do you want to come?” he asked, switching back to his regular voice. 

“Are you asking me out?” Lena teased.

“Girl, bite your tongue! You are barking up the wrong tree,” Winn said, clutching at imaginary pearls. 

“Good, because I’d hate to have to break your heart. I bat for the other team,” she told him. Lena was far from closeted, though it wasn’t like her to share personal details with someone she had just met. But Winn was easy to talk to. And she liked him.

“Oh yay yay yay!” Winn said, clapping his hands. “That is so perfect, because it’s a gay bar. Now you totally have to come with! Hashtag Winning!” 

Lena surprised herself with a loud burst of laughter. 

“But seriously, M’gann is a friend of mine, and I’d love it if you joined our group,” Winn said. 

Kara’s head appeared around the corner.

“Kara’s coming too!” he said. 

“Hi, Lena! What am I coming to? Winn, we’re almost ready to check the livestream and we need you,” she said.

“The IT guy’s work is never done,” he said, picking up Lena’s hand and bowing while giving it a brief kiss. “Lena, it was a pleasure. Here’s my card, and PLEASE come on Saturday,” he said, handing her a business card. “Text me. You can come over for the pre-party and we’ll go together.” He strutted out the door.

“Wait, Winn is the IT guy? I thought he was the makeup artist,” Lena said. 

“He’s both,” Kara said. “Well, his actual job is IT, but none of the CatCo makeup artists can be spared for this webcast, so he offered. Are you going to come to M’gann’s club on Saturday?”

“Well, Winn invited me, but...” Lena started to demur.

“Oh, that’s great! I was going to mention it to you after the webcast. It’s going to be really fun. Do you think you can make it?”

“I don’t have any plans,” Lena admitted. She felt hesitant to commit to actually being there. She had gotten a kick out of Winn, and she liked Kara, but it had been months since she’d been to any social event that wasn’t actually an L-Corp charity fundraiser or corporate event. She felt unaccountably shy, thinking about a social situation where she wouldn’t have her role as CEO to give her a script to follow.

“How about I pick you up, and we can go over to Winn’s together?” Kara asked. She gave Lena one of her brilliant smiles. 

Friendliness seemed to come as naturally to this woman as breathing, and Lena found herself wanting to accept.

“That sounds lovely.”

“Great! I’ll get your number after and we can figure out what time. But for now, it’s showtime,” Kara said. 

They walked out from the brightly lit mirrors of the makeup room to the brightly lit sound stage that had been set up. It had been set like a makeshift living room, with sleek modern furniture and a low coffee table on which sat mugs filled with water. Lena and the other two panelists - an urban planner and a cyclist - sat on the couch, while Kara sat in a chair angled to partially face them.

A tall man with the confident air of a director stepped in front of the camera to address the panel. 

“Okay, people, we’ll be on air in two minutes. Remember, this is live, so there are no do-overs. Don’t look at the camera when you’re speaking - look at Kara. Try not to talk over each other. Be yourselves, unless you’re a person who interrupts other people,” he concluded with a grin. “Sixty seconds.”

“Thank you, James,” Kara said with a grin.

CatCo Worldwide Media’s print magazine was its flagship publication. In more recent years, they had expanded their digital and multimedia footprint. Recorded, produced video had been part of their strategy for years on their website and instagram feed, but livestreaming was apparently new territory. 

As the author of an article that had been published that morning on the website, Kara’s strategy for guiding the discussion for the panelists was essentially asking them each two questions - one that underscored the main point she had interviewed them about for the article, and a new question that wasn’t covered in the article. It was smart, Lena reflected - for people who hadn’t yet read the article, it was clear there were more details available, and for people who had, there was more content beyond just a rehash.

Lena was especially interested in what the urban planner had to say about cities and bike routes.

“In the United States, many cities on the East Coast are older and their roads were laid out before cars existed. For example, in Metropolis, the streets are narrower, and there’s less space to just add a bike lane. To do that, you’d have to take away some parking spaces or take space from the sidewalks. Cities want to encourage pedestrianism, so shrinking a sidewalk isn’t the best thing to do.

“Here in National City, like many cities in the west, the roads are wider, but it’s still not perfect. We’ve made great progress in designating bike lanes and marking them clearly, but we also have mopeds, electric scooters, and of course pedestrians all trying to use the same shared space. 

“If I could start from scratch and design a brand-new city, I would create a totally separate trail just for bicycles to keep them apart from motor vehicle traffic. Some cities like Toronto have done this along the lake shore, for example. But by and large, urban planners don’t have that luxury - we need to figure out how to make the city safer for everyone while working with the streets that we have.”

Lena spoke about Jack’s mission to build a safer, lower-cost bike and L-Corp’s role in helping to produce a stronger, lighter frame. Materials science had been one of their shared interests at MIT, and she thought her comments were well received. If anyone thought it was strange that the CEO of a large corporation was speaking about one small project in a sea of hundreds, they didn’t say so. Lena had prepared an answer about how she had recently headed up research & development and wanted to keep her skills sharp, but thankfully she didn’t need to use it. 

Kara also mentioned the obligation of bicycle riders, drivers and pedestrians to obey the rules of the road.

“There’s a reason the phrase ‘the rules of the road’ exists. It’s part of the social contract of everyone who uses the common space. If you can reasonably count on other people doing what they are supposed to be doing - stopping at red lights, waiting for the walk signal to cross the street, and not cutting into traffic - then everyone can also count on a reasonable expectation of safety.

“I’ll be the first to acknowledge that cyclists don’t always adhere to this. Momentum is a thing that we are often loathe to reduce for what seems like an arbitrary reason. Stopping at a four-way stop sign or a red light can feel inconvenient. But at most, these things add a negligible amount of time to a commute, and contribute to everyone else’s shared safety.”

The time seemed to fly by, and after what seemed like five minutes but Lena knew was fifteen, Kara turned toward the camera and thanked the viewers for joining them for the first ever CatCo livestream.

Lena shook hands with the other panelists as they all stood up, and then excused herself to retrieve her purse from the makeup room. 

As she leaned toward the mirror to wipe off some of the stage powder Winn had used on her face, she heard a voice drifting over from the other room. For a moment she thought she heard her own middle name,  _ Kieran. _

“Kiera. Do you care to explain yourself?”

“The livestream went great, Ms. Grant, thanks for asking.”

“Sarcasm is one of the most banal millennial traits. Do you mean to tell me that you had  _ the _ Lena Luthor as an interviewee for your little panel, and it was about  _ bicycles?” _

“Yes. She was fantastic.”

“Kiera, do you know who Lena Luthor is?”

“She’s the CEO of L-Corp. I also know what the Socratic Method is, in case you were wondering.”

“I have been trying to get an interview with Lena Luthor for half a year about her takeover of her brother’s company, and she’s been dodging me. Then I find out she’s here, in  _ my _ building, participating in an interview? And it’s about  _ bicycles, _ of all things? Honestly, Kiera, did you learn nothing about what’s actually newsworthy during your tenure at the National City Tribune?”

“What exactly do you want, Ms. Grant? I’m really busy.”

“Clearly, Kiera. You have avocado toast to buy, and pictures of it to post on instagram. I want an exclusive with Lena Luthor about the rebranding and refocus of L-Corp.”

“Great! Ask her.”

“That’s what I’m saying, Kiera. Did your hearing get affected by your little bike accident? She’s been avoiding me. She’s refused to do any interviews beyond her initial press conference when she took over the company. But it seems you know her and have an in with her. I want you to ask her for the exclusive.”

“Why can’t Mike ask her? He’s the business editor, not me.”

“Do you really think she’s going to return Mike’s calls if she won’t return  _ mine?” _

Lena heard a snort. 

“I mean, I wouldn’t return Mike’s calls either,” Kara said. 

An annoyed huff from Cat Grant. 

“But Ms. Grant, I need to be honest with you. I think Lena and I are starting to become friends. And asking her to do this interview, especially when it seems like she’s already made it clear to you that she doesn’t want to, well, I don’t want to presume on the friendship. It feels like a betrayal of trust.”

Lena could almost hear Cat Grant rolling her eyes. 

“Fine, Kiera, have it your way. I’ll have Mike call her, and when Lois Lane from the Daily Planet gets the exclusive, remember this conversation five years from now when I’ve assigned you to cover Twiggy, the Waterskiing Squirrel at the National City Auto Show. You once had a chance to cover real news, and you blew it.”

Lena heard the click of heels recede into the distance. She was somewhat confused by what she had overheard. She didn’t think anyone who worked for Cat Grant ever told the woman no. But Kara had not only told her no, she had also had an easy familiarity with Cat that bordered on insubordinate. 

But if they knew each other so well, then why didn’t Cat seem to know Kara’s name? Lena was no stranger to the power plays people employed to keep others off balance. In fact, she regularly used them to her own advantage with members of the L-Corp board. 

Come to think of it, they had seemed to bicker in something akin to a familial relationship. Deliberately getting someone’s name wrong seemed childish, though.

Well, it was a puzzle for another day. Lena gathered up her purse, straightened her blouse, and walked into the other room where Kara was scrolling through a tablet. 

“Lena, hey! I thought you were gone.”

“Just removing some of the excess makeup. I have a meeting with a board member this afternoon and don’t want to scare him. Or at least, not with my face.”

Kara laughed. “Hey, we’re getting some really good comments on the livestream. Check it out!”

Lena peered at the tablet. 

_ dude that bike is bitchin _

_ Self powered lights are such a good idea. I never remember to charge mine during the day  _

_ that luthor chick is hottttttttt. the fanfic writes itself _

Lena looked up, amused. “Is this what passes for discourse on the internet these days?”

“People seem to have left capital letters by the wayside,” Kara said. “But more importantly, they got to hear about the bike prototype and I hope they learned something, too. Hey, do you want to grab lunch before you go back to the office? My treat.”

“I’d love to, but rain check?” Lena said. “I really do need to get back.”

“It’s a deal. Here, give me your phone and I’ll text myself so we’ll have each other’s numbers. For Saturday,” she added. 

Lena handed over her phone and then Kara’s dinged. 

“All set! Thank you so much for coming. I appreciate it.”

“Well, L-Corp is likely benefiting from the publicity, so it’s I who should be thanking you,” Lena said. “We’ve taken over forty preorders for Jack’s bike since your article was published, and it’s not even in production yet.”

Lena offered her hand to Kara, who ignored it and gave her a big hug. “Saturday! I’ll see you then!”

When Lena returned to the office, she asked Jess to get Cat Grant on the phone. 

****

**Lena L (2:37pm):** Hello Kara. This is Lena Luthor.

**Kara D (2:37pm):** hey lena! i hope you’re not texting me to cancel tomorrow because i do not accept

**Kara D (2:37pm):** ;)

**Lena L (2:38pm):** No, I’m actually reaching out in a professional capacity.

**Kara D (2:38pm):** oh, okay cool!! what’s up?

**Lena L (2:39pm):** I wanted to let you know that I just spoke to Cat Grant. I’ve agreed to do an exclusive interview with CatCo Magazine, on one condition: that you are the reporter who does the interview and writes the story. Full disclosure - I overheard some of your conversation with Cat Grant on Tuesday.

**Lena L (2:39pm):** I wanted you to have a heads up. 

**Kara D (2:40pm):** thanks. ms. grant is currently ordering me into her office so i guess that’s why

**Lena L (2:40pm):** I hope you’ll agree to it. 

**Kara D (2:40pm):** it’s a really big assignment, and it wouldn’t have gone to me without your requesting it. honestly, this feels like kind of a big favor you’re doing for me. kind of like the bike.

**Lena L (2:41pm):** That’s why I wanted to reach out. I would actually consider it a favor to me if you agreed to it. 

**Kara D (2:41pm):** how come?

**Lena L (2:41pm):** It’s past time that I tell L-Corp’s story, but I don’t have a great track record with journalists. I would rather do an interview with someone I trust. I know it presumes on our friendship to ask you to be the one, and I understand if you feel like you’d rather decline.

**Kara D (2:42pm):** got it. it helps to know that. but if i do it, don’t think i’ll be asking you softball questions ;)

**Lena L (2:42pm):** I’ll expect nothing less than hard-hitting journalism.

**Kara D (2:42pm):** did you just make a joke?? haha. okay, if i don’t get to ms. grant’s office ‘pronto’ then ‘kiera’ is going to be fired. i’ll catch up with you in a few.


	4. You Two Look Like Hustlers

It was Saturday night, and for the first time in a long time, Lena Luthor was going out. She was dressed in jeans and a casual top instead of a business suit or the sweatpants and old T-shirts she usually wore at home. She waved to Bill the concierge as she exited the front door of her building, where she was confronted with the sight of Kara locking her bicycle to a rack. 

“When you said you’d pick me up, I didn’t think you meant on a bike,” Lena said.

“Oh, we’re not taking the bike,” Kara said, and then looked up at Lena’s teasing grin as she finished securing the second U-lock to the back tire and frame. Lena noticed that the front tire was already locked to the front curve of the rack with a similar lock. Then Kara took a chain covered in plastic from one of the saddlebags and threaded it through one of the gaps in her helmet, finally passing the chain through the front tire and twirling the combination lock.

“That looks incredibly secure,” Lena said. “Are three locks really necessary?”

“These are Kryptonite locks and they’re the strongest,” Kara said. “They wouldn’t stop a really determined thief with good bolt cutters or a blowtorch, but they would slow them down enough to get noticed. And this section of street is very well-lit.” Kara straightened up dusted her hands off on her jeans. She wore a tight black tank top under a plaid shirt that, despite its rugged lumberjack pattern, was made of some filmy, lightweight material. The top three buttons were undone, and she had rolled up the sleeves.

“Would you like to put it in my garage instead?” Lena asked. “I could ask Bill to buzz us in.”

“If it was going to stay out overnight, then I might take you up on that,” Kara said. “Maybe next time, though.” She gave Lena a smile. 

Lena considered under what circumstances Kara’s bike might stay the night. Her stomach fluttered at the implication there would be a _next time_ where a sleepover might be on the table. She quickly quashed it. This was the first new friend she had made since she moved to National City, and it was no time to start developing a crush that could make it awkward.

Instead, she asked “How are we getting to Winn’s?”

“It’s not a bad walk from here,” Kara said, pulling out her phone and tapping on an app, “but it’s about fifteen blocks, and I think everyone else is already there.”

“Surely we’re not taking Uber,” Lena said with a laugh.

“Nope. I said I’d pick you up, which means I’ll get you there. But we’re not taking Uber, I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“Thanks for that. What, then? Flying? The bus?”

“Lyft,” Kara said, smirking as a sedan pulled up in front of the building. She opened the back door for Lena.

Lena thought about protesting for a moment that she could call her car service, but then decided to just go with it. She was already breaking out of her normal Saturday evening routine of sitting alone at home with a book or a documentary, and she figured that she didn’t need to try to control every step of this evening just to make it feel a little more familiar to her. 

She continued going with the flow when they arrived at Winn’s apartment, and he greeted them in the foyer with a hug and a request that they lick their hands. After they complied he sprinkled their hands with salt and handed them each a shot of tequila.

“Welcome to shots at Schott’s!” he exclaimed, offering them each a lime wedge.

After they drank, he put their glasses on a side table, looped his arm through each of theirs and led them into the living room. 

Winn’s living room was decorated with unassuming black leather furniture, but the neutral effect was mitigated by strings of brightly colored lights that adorned the walls and a huge framed poster of Cher hanging over the sofa. The lamps were off and the strings of lights gave the room a festive glow. An extra-large television was mounted to the wall opposite, and underneath were three different gaming systems. Two of them looked sleek and modern, and the third Lena recognized as a classic Atari. The Eurhythmics played in the background.

“Lena, I think you already know James and Alex. This is Lucy, who I didn’t know was going to be here!” Kara exchanged a hug with a diminutive, wiry brunette. James called a greeting from his relaxed pose on the loveseat. Kara excused herself to speak to Alex.

“Lucy Lane.” The woman extended a hand and an appraising look. 

Lena shook her hand. “Lena Luthor.”

Lucy held herself erect with a self-contained demeanor that felt at odds with her ripped jeans and sleeveless Metallica T-shirt. She smiled politely as they finished their firm handshake. 

“Drink?” Lucy said, moving toward the side table.

“Vodka soda, please,” Lena said.

“Do you want to try it with grenadine and cherries?”

“Uh, sure.” Lena didn’t often vary from her preferred vodka or scotch, either neat or with soda, but she figured it would be polite to at least try what Lucy suggested.

“Kara, what about you?”

“Whatever you’re making, I’ll have one too,” Kara called over her shoulder from where Alex was talking to her in a low murmur.

Lucy mixed the drinks and topped them each with lime, handing one to Lena and the other to Kara. 

“That’s called a Dirty Shirley,” she said.

Lena sipped her drink and blinked.

“Oh, that’s very good,” she said. “Is that real grenadine?”

Lucy nodded, pleased. “I made Winn spring for the real McCoy, not the fake stuff with high fructose corn syrup.”

“I can taste the pomegranate.”

“Lucy used to tend bar in college and she knows every drink in the world,” Kara said, joining them and accepting her drink. “That’s how she met Winn.”

“It was at National City’s only gay bar at the time. It was called Destiny’s Garden,” Lucy said. “It’s closed now.”

“But what a place it was!” Winn said. “I’ll never forget the light-up dance floor. It was a fabulous place to go out. And to come out.” He grinned.

“Let’s sit down,” Lucy said. She picked up her own drink, a simple clear liquid with one large, perfectly square ice cube and a sprig of evergreen, and motioned toward the seating area.

Alex was occupying a chair to the left of the couch, and Lucy joined James on the loveseat opposite. That left Lena, Kara and Winn sharing the couch.

“How long are you back in town for this time?” Kara asked Lucy. 

“Indefinitely,” Lucy said with a shrug.

“What? Why?”

“I’m not so sure anymore that military life is for me. I’m taking a break.”

“Do they let you take breaks from the Army?” Alex asked dryly. 

Lucy shrugged again. “Not really. I resigned my commission.”

Lena blinked. Resigning a commission was a fairly big deal and meant permanent separation from the military. It could only be done by an officer who had served at least eight years of their career. Lucy seemed nonchalant about it, but Lena suspected there was probably more to it. 

“What will you be doing?” Kara asked her. 

“Luckily, a law degree is portable,” Lucy said. “I’m going to be helping M’gann with some of the legal and business stuff for the bar while I figure out what’s next.”

“Good thing you’ve already worked to pass the bar, or you’d have to pass on the bar work,” Winn said. 

The groans broke the mild tension that Lena had sensed.

“Oh my god, Winn, you have to stop,” Alex said, throwing a pillow at him. 

“Anyway, enough about me and my ‘lack of direction’ and ‘current aimlessness’, according to my dad,” Lucy said, making air quotes. She slouched and drained her, then gestured toward Kara and Lena. “How did you two meet?”

Alex snorted. 

“I hit Kara with my car,” Lena said. Everyone else in the room knew the story, but she enjoyed both the look of surprise on Lucy’s face and the opportunity to redirect the attention that had clearly made Lucy uncomfortable.

“That is _not_ what happened,” Kara said. “I crashed my bike into the door of Lena’s Uber just as she was getting out.”

“Only because I didn’t look first,” Lena countered. 

“You didn’t know to look. And I was going too fast and I was too close, anyway.”

“I still should have looked.”

“What a story!” Lucy interrupted, chortling. “And you’re both adorable arguing over whose fault it was. That’s a hell of a meet-cute.”

Lena shifted as James, Alex and Winn all chuckled. She felt uncomfortably exposed by Lucy’s implication that she and Kara were a couple. 

With the CatCo exclusive interview coming up about L-Corp, she felt a sudden need to set the record straight. Any implication of impropriety or corruption could affect the tenuous authority she had managed to cobble together in the last months at her company. Not to mention what it would do to Kara’s reputation as a journalist. 

More telling was her initial reaction to Lucy’s comment - a pleased flush of excitement and affection. 

Lena felt herself starting to mildly spiral.

“Kara and I are friends,” she said. “And professional associates. That’s all.”

Lena didn’t look at Kara, but the silence in the room felt awkward. She winced internally at how heavy-handed she had sounded. Had it been too much?

“Look, it’s 9:30 already,” Winn said, breaking the silence. “Let’s get going. No, just leave your glasses. I’ll make Lucy clean it up in the morning.”

“Are you staying here, Luce?” Kara said, standing up.

“Yep, for a week,” Lucy said. “You’re next.”

“I told you you’re welcome to stay with me as long as you want to,” Winn protested as he locked the door.

“You can stay with me anytime, too, Lucy,” James said. “I’m over here most of the time anyway, so you could have some privacy.”

“And you’re definitely not welcome to stay with me,” Alex added. 

Lena raised her eyebrows, but Lucy didn’t seem perturbed.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“We roomed together in college,” Alex said to Lena, noticing the look. “We both decided that for the sake of any future friendship never to repeat it.”

The Alien Bar was just a few short blocks from Winn’s apartment, and the group walked. Lena, who rarely ventured off the beaten path between her apartment and the L-Corp building, surmised that they were in the gay neighborhood by the plethora of rainbow flags hanging from the balconies they passed.

She was content to listen to the group of friends as they walked, Winn’s staccato chatter creating a sort of harmony with James’ mellifluous baritone. Alex and Lucy kept up a steady conversation. The mild weather and pleasant buzz from the alcohol combining to create a sensation that Lena hadn’t felt in a long time.

Relaxation.

For most of the time she had been in National City, Lena’s only human interactions were with people who worked for her, or people she worked for. Jess looked out for her as much as she could, making sure she received (and ate) a healthy lunch every day, but she was only one person. And while the intimacy created by the executive and assistant relationship often felt like a friendship, Lena never deluded herself that it actually was. She made sure to keep and enforce boundaries - made easier by Jess’ taciturn nature.

It wasn’t that Lena _wanted_ to work constantly and have no time for a personal life - far from it. But it had been only grudgingly that L-Corp’s board of directors had voted to accept her as CEO. Due to the uncertain status of Lex’s shares of L-Corp, Lena had to spend far more time convincing and cajoling the board to support her decisions than Lex ever had.

She owned 33% of L-Corp’s stock, while Lex’s voting stake of 34% was currently frozen as the courts worked out who would take ownership of his shares. L-Corp’s board of six directors held about 20% of the stock, and the rest belonged to individual shareholders. That meant that for anything requiring a vote above 50% of all shareholders, the entire board had to agree. 

Lena would have been working a lot anyway, given that she wanted to change the focus of L-Corp, significantly in some areas. But a large portion of her time was also spent negotiating, cajoling, and sometimes intimidating a small group of opinionated people. Without their unanimous support, she would have a much harder time changing the course of the company.

The board members had originally been recruited by her brother. They had made it clear that they didn’t think she was qualified and had only voted to support her as CEO because of her shares in the company and familial bond to Lex. Lena didn’t need to be liked by everyone in her work life, but being actively disliked was, frankly, exhausting.

This feeling of being able to relax and not have to be constantly on her guard had been so long absent that it felt new. Kara’s friends were welcoming without being overbearing, including Lena in their conversation but not quizzing her about her work. Too often in this last year, anyone who had approached her under the guise of friendship had immediately started digging for information about Luthor Corp’s implosion. While she wasn’t ready to completely let down her guard - at this point, she wasn’t even sure that was something she was capable of doing - Kara’s friends had gone longer without asking her about Lex than anyone else in the last several months, and she relished it.

Kara participated in her friends’ conversation when they directed a comment to her, but for the most part walked beside Lena in comfortable silence. She didn’t appear to be carrying any awkwardness from Lena’s declaration of _just friends_ at Winn’s house. When Lena glanced at her, she seemed to be appreciating the night and the walk, frequently turning her omnipresent smile on something that caught her eye - a gray-haired man walking a small fuzzy dog, a poster in a window that said “RESIST,” and a couple out on a date.

The Alien Bar was a sturdy brick building that stood at a corner of the street a block off the main drag. Potted palms stood outside between each of the four large windows, illuminated by floodlights. They entered through the front door. 

Around the walls near the windows were several individual tables, and closer to the inside, some high-tops. The centerpiece of the room was a gleaming wooden bar ringed with stools. To one side was a pool table and three flat-screen TVs were mounted on the exposed brick. They each showed a different sporting event - Lena noticed a WNBA game, a women’s soccer game, and men’s hockey. The sound was off and subtitles appeared on each television, and the background noise in the bar was the music coming through the bar’s sound system.

Lena noted with relief that there was no dance floor.

The room’s high ceilings made the bar feel more spacious than it was. Kara and her friends went directly to the bar and greeted the bartender.

“M’gann, this is my friend Lena. Lena, this is M’gann,” Kara introduced them. 

“This place is lovely,” Lena said.

“Thanks,” M’gann replied. “It’s been my dream for a while now. What can I get you?”

“Whiskey over ice, please,” Lena said. M’gann nodded, and then waved off the credit card Lena tried to hand her. “Kara and her friends are on the house tonight.”

“Thank you,” Lena said, swallowing her urge to protest that she could pay. She accepted the whiskey with good grace.

While M’gann took drink orders from the rest of the group, Lucy ducked under the pass-through and grabbed an apron.

“I told you you didn’t have to help behind the bar,” M’gann said. “You’re already helping enough.”

“What else am I going to do?” Lucy retorted, and began to fill a pitcher with beer for Winn, James and Alex.

“We’re going to need a fourth for pool in a bit, though,” Winn protested.

“Don’t worry, Maggie will be here soon,” Alex told him.

“But she's way too good. I call her as partner.”

“Hey!” James said in mock offense. 

“Sorry, honey. But I’m not in the mood to lose big tonight. We can play couples once I get a win under my belt. And yes, I hear it. Don’t you say a word.”

“I would never make such an obvious pun about getting a Winn under my belt,” James said, laughing. “Unlike some people.”

He poured beer from the pitcher into four of the five pint glasses that Lucy had set out, and passed one to Kara.

Alex’s face lit up as a woman approached their group. Lena had met Alex under extreme circumstances, and had seen her stressed and stern. Tonight at Winn’s apartment, she had seemed more relaxed, though still self-contained. But upon seeing the woman who walked up to them and slid her arms around Alex, she seemed to go through a transformation. The smile that graced her face and the easy familiarity of their hello kiss spoke of deep comfort.

After Maggie had greeted and hugged everyone else, Alex spoke up.

“Lena, this is my wife Maggie. Maggie, this is Kara’s friend Lena.”

Lena extended a hand to Maggie, who shook it as they exchanged pleasantries. She felt the woman’s eyes appraising her and hoped she was measuring up.

“Come on, let’s play pool before I get too drunk to make any shots,” Winn said. “Maggie, you’re my partner and I’m depending on you! We’re going to wipe the floor with those two. They’re going DOWN tonight! Yes, I hear it. Don’t say anything, James.”

“Not a word.” He mimed zipping up his lips.

Lena smiled as she took a seat at the bar next to Kara. “Are they always like this?”

“Always,” Kara said. “James was so closeted in college, and it took him a long time to be okay with it. Now I think he’s just so relieved to be able to be himself. He really likes giving Winn back as good as he gets.”

“Are they a couple?”

“They are as of a few months ago. They were friends all through college, and it never seemed to be more than that, until James started working at CatCo. Go figure.”

“Is that allowed?”

“We have a standard policy. Disclose it to your manager, and as long as there’s not a reporting relationship and it doesn’t create the opportunity for nepotism or conflicts of interest, then it’s fine. I just went through all the introductory stuff again last week.”

That was the same policy at L-Corp, Lena reflected. It made sense. People spent so much of their time at work, it was only natural that they would meet other people there. Of course, office breakups had the potential to create drama, but as long as everyone behaved with maturity, it wasn’t usually a problem.

“So you recently started at CatCo?” Lena knew that from what Alex had told her in the emergency room, but she hadn’t discussed it with Kara.

“Yep! It’s my second time around, actually.”

“Oh?”

“After I graduated from college, I worked for three years as Ms. Grant’s executive assistant. Then I left and spent a few years as a reporter at the National City Tribune so I could get some experience.”

“That explains why you and Jess seem to have hit it off."

“Yep, I know what her job is like in a way that most other people don’t."

"Why didn’t you didn’t stay at CatCo and become a reporter there?”

"I wanted to prove myself.” Kara said. “Everyone there knew me as Ms. Grant’s assistant. I have a journalism degree, but I didn’t want anyone thinking I got a reporting job just handed to me.”

“That’s admirable. It also explains how you sounded so familiar when you were talking to her. I wasn’t eavesdropping on purpose,” Lena hastened to add.

“Oh, I don’t think you were,” Kara laughed. “But yeah - I learned a lot about how she communicates when I was her assistant. I try not to abuse it, but I don’t let her get under my skin. We kept in touch when I was at the Trib. I’m actually glad she talks to me that way in the office.”

“Really?”

“If she was any other way, then people would think I was being given special treatment.”

Lena nodded. It made sense.

“I’d ask you about your work, but we’re going to have an official conversation about that next week,” Kara continued. “So what do you do when you’re not working?”

“I have very little time when I’m not working, these days,” Lena said. “Sometimes I read, or cook, or watch TV. I’m hoping that as things settle down at L-Corp, I’ll have more free time to explore the city. I’d like to see some of what it has to offer.”

She saw Kara’s expression veering toward sympathetic, and quickly asked another question, not wanting the focus to remain on her.

“What about you? What do you do when you’re not reporting? Or biking,” she added with a wry grin.

“I mostly bike to get around, though I do enjoy it for fun sometimes,” Kara said. “I go running sometimes, or swimming. I try to catch some of the National City sports teams when I can, especially women’s soccer and basketball. And Alex and I trade off hosting a monthly game night with the gang. Everyone’s so busy with their careers that we have to make more of an effort to see each other. I like live music, and oh, and I also just joined the CatCo company softball team.”

Lena blinked. With all of that, she didn’t see how Kara had time for a job. Even during her previous position as head of R&D, she hadn’t had such a full or active schedule. 

“Softball team?” she asked. “I can’t imagine Cat Grant playing softball.”

“She doesn’t,” Kara said with a snort of laughter. “You don’t play on the L-Corp team, do you?”

“L-Corp has a softball team?”

“Yep! We’re both in the National City rec league. I think we play you guys next weekend.”

Moving L-Corp’s headquarters from Metropolis to National City had been disruptive for the employees, which Lena regretted. L-Corp kept a regional office in Metropolis, and her employees had been offered the chance to stay, but most of her top executives and several hundred key employees had chosen to move. 

Lena hadn’t known that her company had a softball team - as far as she knew, there hadn’t been one in Metropolis - but she had given the human resources department instructions to encourage opportunities for employees to get to know their new city. 

“Maybe I’ll come take in a game,” she said.

“Hey Kara! Lena! You’re up,” Winn said, sliding in between them. 

“Game over so soon?” Kara said. 

“Maggie and I won one, so I’m satisfied. Then James and I lost. They’re ready for you, and I’m going to get my drink onnn,” he said, drawing out the last word.

“Okay,” Kara said. “Are you up for it, Lena?” She stood up and relinquished her seat to James, gathering her half-empty pint glass and Lena’s mostly full whiskey tumbler.

“It’s been a while, but as long as you don’t mind a partner who’s a little rusty, let’s do it.” Lena winced internally when she heard the words come out of her mouth, and glanced at Winn. His eyes sparkled gleefully, but he just smirked and turned away. 

Maggie and Alex stood side by side, each leaning casually against the table holding their pool cues as Kara and Lena approached.

“You two look like hustlers,” Kara said. “Lena, do not agree to any bets tonight.” 

Alex twirled her cue around the chalk. “Aw, let’s make it more interesting. Whaddya say, Luthor?”

“Gambling is illegal in the city limits, babe,” Maggie told her, racking the balls.

“Spoilsport. You guys can break.”

Kara raised her eyebrows at Lena, who gestured for her to go ahead. It was a good break, and one of the stripes landed in the corner pocket. Kara missed the next shot.

Lena quickly realized they were outmatched as Maggie bent her slim form over the table. She sank three balls in quick succession, barely even seeming to line them up. Maggie didn’t have much of a shot on her last one, with so many striped balls still littering the landscape, and tapped the cue ball toward the rail, leaving Lena without any clear shot.

“Thanks,” Lena said dryly, sizing up the situation. There had been a pool table at her house growing up, and Lex had taught her how to play. Shaking off memories of happier times, she banked the cue ball off the opposite rail. It grazed the 9-ball, which rolled neatly into the corner. 

Alex whistled. “Nice shot.”

Lena made the next shot, an easy side pocket shot, but then her luck ran out and she missed the next. Alex made two more shots, Kara made one, and then Maggie cleaned up the rest of the table, calling the 8-ball in the corner pocket and that’s where it rolled.

“Again?” Maggie asked.

“I’ll sit the next one out,” Lena said. “But this was fun.”

“I’m down,” Kara said. “Hey James! Want to be my partner?”

"Yep."

Lena took the bar stool that James vacated and set her now-empty glass in front of her.

“Another?” Lucy asked from behind the bar.

“Just water, please,” Lena said. Lucy filled up the glass and slid it over.

The bar had done steady business, though there wasn’t a huge crowd at the bar at the moment, and Lucy lingered.

“How was the pool game?” Lucy asked.

“Fun, although the outcome was never in doubt,” Lena said. “Maggie probably could have beat us with one hand tied behind her back.”

Lucy laughed. “She’s a great pool player. She calls it a sign of her misspent youth. I’m glad M’gann decided to put in the pool table. I told her it would be a big draw.”

“It’s a lot of fun.”

Lucy smiled, though she had a distant look. “I haven’t tended bar in a long time, but it’s funny how it all comes back.”

“Not much opportunity to mix drinks in the Army?” 

“Not for me,” Lucy said. “I mean, there was plenty of it in the CO’s lounge, but I guess that’s all behind me now.”

Lena wasn’t one to pry, but figured if Lucy wanted to talk about it, she would give her that opening.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“That’s some role reversal, isn’t it?” Lucy said. “The sympathetic bartender is the one who’s supposed to listen to the customers talk about their problems.”

Lena just shrugged.

“It’s just that for a long time, I thought my life was following a certain path. And now everything’s changed and I don’t even have a home. It was my choice, but it’s still a lot to figure out.”

“You come off as very confident.”

Now it was Lucy’s turn to shrug. “Sometimes I do feel that way. Sometimes I don’t, but you learn pretty quickly in a place like the Army. Anyway, I need to find more to do. M’gann’s been very kind, but her incorporation is finished, the temporary liquor license is done, and her permanent one will come through next month.”

“Is that what your legal experience is? Business law?”

“Sort of. I did some labor law in Army JAG, worked on contracts, did some litigation and even some estate planning. I think that was part of the problem - I never found the one piece of the law that I was most passionate about. It was all just fine, but nothing special.”

“It sounds like good experience of a lot of areas of law, anyway.”

“True. I wasn’t forced to specialize like I would have been if I were in private practice or prosecution. Anyway, my career woes are boring. More water?”

Lena shook her head. “Thanks, no. Could you tell me where the restroom is?”

“Over there.” Lucy gestured toward the opposite corner from the pool table to a hallway.

When Lena returned, the pool game seemed to have broken up and Kara’s friends were back clustered around the bar. It was just after 11:00pm, and Lena suppressed a yawn as she pulled out her phone. 

“Thank you for inviting me,” she said to Winn. “This was a lot of fun. And Kara, thanks for picking me up.”

“Are you taking off?” Kara asked her. 

“Yes, I’m just calling my car service,” Lena said, tapping on her contacts.

“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Kara said. “We can take a Lyft together.”

Lena hesitated. The thought of leaving together brought up all sorts of fluttery feelings inside that she didn’t feel ready to analyze or even acknowledge. She wanted to say yes, but her innate caution stopped her.

“I need to get my bike from your place anyway,” Kara clarified.

Lena flushed. “Of course.”

She let Kara use the app to hail a car. While Kara hugged all of her friends goodbye, Lena thanked M’gann again. Winn surprised her by pulling her into an embrace as well. Alex gave her a lazy wave, now thoroughly relaxed in her wife’s arms.

The Lyft ride back to Lena’s was comfortably silent and quick. Traffic wasn’t heavy at this time of night. 

“Thanks again for picking me up,” Lena said, as the car drove away. “I had a great time.”

Kara smiled. “I’m glad you came.”

The silence between them stretched out, and Kara took a step closer. She took both of Lena’s hands and drew in a breath.

“Lena…”

Lena’s heart began to pound. She took in a shaky breath.

“Kara, I…” 

Kara squeezed her hands.

“I don’t know if you’re feeling what I’m feeling, but…”

Lena cut her off. 

“Wait.”

Kara stopped talking.

There was so much Lena wanted to say. That she hadn’t had a relationship in over a year and her last one had ended badly. That she didn’t want to muddy the waters before Kara’s interview with her about L-Corp. That she liked Kara more than she had liked anyone in a long time.

That she was scared.

Lena didn’t say any of that. Instead, she whispered, not trusting herself to speak louder.

“Not...yet. Okay?”

And by some miracle, Kara seemed to understand exactly what she meant, and her face broke into a sunny smile that Lena felt was somehow undeserved, but also was so grateful to see. 

“Okay.”

Kara hugged her, and gave her another look before unlocking her bike. Lena waved as she rode away. 

Head spinning and heart aching, Lena went upstairs. Though her mind was racing and she thought she might toss and turn, she fell asleep soon after completing her nightly routine and climbing into bed.


	5. On The Record

Lena’s experience with journalists to date had been rocky, to say the least. After Lex’s arrest and her assuming the job of CEO, she had granted interviews and taken calls from the press. She’d had the idea that increased transparency would help the company. She hadn’t been prepared for some of the belligerent questions aimed at her, and after some quotes were taken out of context, she had simply stopped participating. Sadly, it seemed to her at the time that the press would rather gleefully report on her brother’s downfall with sensationalized stories than anything else. 

When she had decided to rebrand Luthor Corp to L-Corp and move the company’s headquarters to National City, she had held exactly two press conferences: one in Metropolis, and one in National City. All other publicity was done by issuing short press releases about new products or the company’s earnings reports. Questions were routed to the public relations department, and they responded with clipped, factual answers. The juicy quotes that reporters often sought were not forthcoming, and the new L-Corp had a well-earned reputation as a fortress against the press.

Lena knew the situation couldn’t continue forever like this, and she had been putting it off. She didn’t believe in signs, but if she had, then hitting a cyclist with her car door and having that cyclist turn out to be a friendly journalist who was reluctant to use their friendship for access would have felt like a sign from the universe.

If only she didn’t find the friendly journalist so attractive. That was a twist Lena hadn’t been expecting. 

All day Sunday she had worried whether she had done the right thing in asking Kara to wait. Kara had seemed accepting and understanding in the moment, but would she continue to feel that way the next day, or would she instead feel the sting of rejection? Lena couldn’t even articulate to herself how long she wanted to wait, or why, or under what circumstances the wait would be over. What if Kara asked her those questions and Lena couldn’t answer?

She had debated texting Kara and had gone so far as to pick up her phone several times during the day, but always ended up putting it down. What would she even have said? Clarifying that she wasn’t interested in starting something right now but might definitely be interested in starting something at an undefined future date under vague circumstances and that she just wanted to make sure Kara wasn’t feeling led on, rejected or otherwise jerked around didn’t make logical sense. 

There was nothing going on between them, and already Lena felt like she was spiraling from the drama. Knowing that the drama existed in her own head didn’t seem to mitigate it. 

In the end, Lena had resolutely tried to put the entire situation out of her mind and had resolved to be nothing but professional with Kara on Monday morning when the reporter came to her office for the interview. She had decided to be pleasant, but also to keep a professional demeanor at all times, and if there was any doubt, she would err on the side of being cordial but aloof.

She prepared a distant smile as Jess buzzed her to let her know that Kara had arrived. 

“Send her in.”

Of course, Kara immediately demolished her carefully constructed defenses when she strode into Lena’s office Monday morning for their interview and enveloped Lena in a hug.

“Hi, Lena!” she said cheerfully, releasing her and giving her a grin as she turned to put her bag down. “Where should I set up?”

Lena returned the smile, and just like that, she felt as at ease with Kara as she had felt before any of this had come up. Could it really be that easy? Apparently with Kara, it could. She gestured toward the table, and Kara busied herself unpacking a notebook, a recorder and other sundries from her messenger bag.

The evaporation of her planned emotional distance also meant that she allowed herself to notice Kara on a personal level as well as professional. She gazed fondly as Kara set her bag down, having finished unpacking it. Kara looked up at her and smiled. There was no evasion, judgement or trace of hurt in her expression. Lena felt warmth spread through her chest. She looked up as Jess knocked on the door frame to announce the arrival of the other attendees.

Mark, the L-Corp head of public relations, and Rosa, the general counsel entered her office and after introducing themselves to Kara, they took their seats. Lena had chosen the small round table in her office for the interview. She had considered and rejected the idea of sitting behind her desk, as that would have created a barrier that would have felt metaphorical as well as literal. She had also discarded the couch as being too intimate for an interview with a journalist. The table wasn’t quite big enough to accommodate four people, but Lena was more comfortable in her office than she would have been in a conference room.

Mark and Rosa’s attendance had come as a compromise. Lena had wanted to do the interview alone, but her legal team had protested strongly. The board had wanted her not to do the interview in the first place, but luckily they didn’t have standing to prevent her from talking to the press. Even Sam, her CFO, had advised her to allow Mark and Rosa to attend on the grounds that she had an obligation to make sure that anything from her interview didn’t negatively affect L-Corp’s stock price. 

Lena had finally agreed with the stipulation that she alone would answer Kara’s questions, and Mark and Rosa could only chime in to veto a question or to tell Lena that her answer was veering into restricted grounds.

Kara seemed relaxed and confident regardless, smiling at Lena, Mark and Rosa as she fiddled with her recording device and lay a pen on top of her notepad. Lena had half expected Cat Grant to show up in Kara’s wake, although her conversation with Cat had made it clear that only Kara would be allowed access. When she thought about it, Cat accompanying her would have displayed a lack of trust in Kara anyway, and she was glad it wasn’t the case.

“Ready?” Kara asked, after checking everything one last time.

Lena nodded.

“Before we begin, I want to remind you that L-Corp won’t comment on anything regarding pending litigation or criminal matters,” Rosa interjected. 

“Understood.”

“We can begin,” Lena said, glancing at Rosa and Mark.

Kara pressed record.

“Good morning, Ms. Luthor,” she began.

“Good morning, Ms. Danvers.” Lena was privately amused at the formality, but gratified as well. 

“You’ve been the CEO of your family’s company for seven months now. Was that ever part of your career plan?”

“It was not. My brother was the CEO, and I expected to be the head of research and development for most if not all of my career. Obviously, Lex’s arrest changed all that.”

Lena felt rather than saw Mark and Rosa shift in their seats, and held up a hand. The fact of Lex’s arrest was public record, as was his indictment, though his trial had not yet begun.

“Do you have any background in business?”

“In terms of credentials, yes. I minored in business at MIT. It’s true that my academic work focused on science and engineering, but I grew up in a business family, so you could say that it’s in my DNA. As well, we have an experienced board of directors who collectively have a vast amount of expertise to share.”

Lena didn’t think that was a lie, really. She talked to the board often - more often than Lex had. And if her phrasing made it sound like she viewed the board more as a trusted source of mentorship than a nest of vipers, then so be it. 

“Why did you change the name of the company from Luthor Corp to L-Corp?”

“Names have power. Changing the name was one way to signify that things will be different during my tenure.”

“What things will be different?”

“We’re scaling back our work in some areas, and expanding it in others.”

“What are you cutting back on?”

Lena could feel Mark and Rosa tense as they anticipated her answer. 

“It’s a matter of public record that about fifteen percent of Luthor Corp’s portfolio was in armaments,” she said. “We supplied the United States government with both munitions and protective gear like body armor. L-Corp will keep producing products that will protect our soldiers, but we’ve already begun a planned reduction in the volume of munitions that we produce and supply to the armed forces.”

“Why did you make that decision?”

“Business principles drive all of our decisions,” Lena said. “The weapons business is a crowded field. While we have competed well there, we see a more profitable future in the areas where we intend to expand that aren’t so saturated.”

“Which areas are those?”

“We’re focusing more of our research, development and production on medical technology, carbon sequestration, sustainable food production, consumer safety, and renewable energy. Green technology is an emerging field without a clear leader. L-Corp will be that leader.”

“Would it be fair to say that L-Corp is moving more of its business efforts into products that advance good for humankind, rather than hurting it?”

Lena gave Kara a keen glance. She would have much preferred to have this interview without the restraining guidance of her PR head and general counsel. She wanted to be able to hold a press conference to announce a totally new direction for L-Corp, unfettered by talking points and legal considerations. She wanted to announce that she was leading a company that stood for the greater good, that existed to solve problems rather than make money.

But while the unresolved specter of what Lex had done was still a cloud hanging over L-Corp, she couldn’t make a statement like the one Kara had made without setting off a firestorm for the company.

The whole world knew that Lex had been arrested. The FBI had deliberately timed their arrest in the middle of the work day, at Luthor Corp, and had conducted a very public perp walk featuring Lex in handcuffs. The SUV in which they drove him away had been parked down the block, though there was plenty of open space in front of the Luthor Corp building.

The end result was a public spectacle that lasted longer than it strictly had needed to and ensured plenty of journalists and bystanders with mobile phones were able to record and even livestream Lex getting frogmarched down the street and shoved into the back of a government car. 

That had made Lena’s life and job harder than it had ever been, but once she learned more about what Lex had been up to - had _allegedly_ been up to - she couldn’t hold it against the FBI. 

Since his arrest, indictment and eventual arraignment, Lex’s case had been pending trial for the last five months as the prosecution built its case and did research. Much of their research involved discovery from Luthor Corp. The whole affair was under a strict gag order for reasons of national security, but rumors had leaked out, as they always would. 

Still, there was a strict limit to what she could say about Lex’s situation - almost nothing. Even stating a new direction for the company in bold terms could be construed by the public as a repudiation of its past business dealings, which Rosa had warned her could harm Lex’s case, and by extension, L-Corp.

Lena didn’t care if she harmed Lex’s case, but she refused to put the future of L-Corp and her leadership in jeopardy. The company had a lot to atone for, and she was determined to be the one to do it. More than atonement, though, she truly did believe that, as Kara had clearly seen and stated, that L-Corp could become a driving force to solve humanity’s problems.

There was also the issue of the board of directors. When Lex had decided to take Luthor Corp public, one of the requirements was to form a board of directors. As a private company, the board had consisted of Lena, their mother, and a couple of disinterested cousins, but as a public company, the optics of that much family oversight and ownership were poor. So Lex had handpicked new candidates for the board.

While the board hadn’t seemed to even give Lex that much trouble, they had made Lena’s life feel like a minefield. Every change she proposed, every new idea, they were all hotly debated and contested. The move to divest L-Corp from the business of building bombs had been one of the most contentious yet, and she was wary of triggering them with any statements that seemed to criticize Luthor Corp’s past work in that area.

“I would say a statement like that is a value judgement.”

She almost felt Mark relax behind her. A mealy-mouthed rejoinder that ruffled no Wall Street feathers wouldn’t attract legions of L-Corp fans to her banner, but it also wouldn’t touch off any firestorms.

“And,” Lena continued, “if people look at our company’s direction and then make that value judgement about the work that L-Corp intends to do, then...I would be pleased to hear it.”

Lena deliberately didn’t look at Rosa or Mark as she said that, though she could sense the tension. Damn it, why was it so controversial to make a statement that her company wanted to do good in the world? She knew that Mark and Rosa didn't disagree with the substance of the statement, but they were focused on protecting the company within the boundaries of their job descriptions.

Still, she had no regrets. 

The rest of the interview focused on some of the specifics of L-Corp’s new work. Lena relaxed and talked at length with Kara about medical technology, biodegradable plastic, and even Jack’s bicycle. The interview concluded, and as Kara gathered up her things, Mark excused himself, probably to prep his staff with talking points about Lena's minor declaration of good intentions.

“Thanks again for your time today, Ms. Luthor. Either I or my colleagues may be in touch if there’s anything we need to verify.” Kara extended her hand.

“Certainly,” Lena said, shaking Kara’s hand. With a parting nod to Rosa, Kara left the office.

Rosa sighed as she took a seat. 

“You did well.” Her demeanor didn’t match the words. 

“That’s not what I was expecting you to say,” Lena replied, stretching her neck to one side.

Rosa cracked a smile. “Sorry, the tension probably got to me. Just, with everything with the trial happening, this interview felt like a big risk.”

“I know. But not doing any interviews for so long was also risky. It made us look like we have something to hide.”

Rosa gave her a look.

“We don’t have anything to hide, Rosa. Lex did this. Not us.”

“I know. But some of the people in my own department were complicit. I’m accountable, even if I’m not responsible for their actions. Plus, it means we’re down some head count and my contract lawyers are overworked trying to keep up with complying with the Department of Justice’s discovery requests. I’m taking some of the work off their plates, and it’s still not helping.”

“So hire more lawyers,” Lena said. 

“Oh sure, let them eat cake. It’s not that easy.”

“Why isn’t it that easy?”

Rosa blew out a frustrated breath. “I have trust issues, okay? I personally hired Edgar. We worked together for ten years. He was my right-hand guy. And to find out that he was in cahoots with Lex the whole time...it shook me, Lena.”

Lena sat down next to Rosa. “I sympathize. We’ve all been betrayed and let down by people we trusted the most.”

“I know, I know, I didn’t mean…”

Lena cut her off. “I’m not taking offense, and it’s not a competition. Your feelings are valid. But I’m telling you, I need you. I need your help to turn L-Corp around and undo the damage that Lex did. And you can’t do that if you’re running yourself ragged, or if your whole department quits because they’re overworked.”

Rosa looked up at the ceiling and pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes for a moment. 

“You’re right. I know you are. I just need to do it. Fine, I’ll go talk to HR about getting the jobs posted.”

Lena smiled at her. “That’s the spirit. Did you know that L-Corp has a softball team?”

“What? No. Isn’t that the favorite sport of your people? Or is that golf? I can never keep up.”

“You’re hilarious. Now get out of my office and go hire some lawyers.” Her tone belied the harshness of her words, and Rosa gave her the finger along with a laugh as she left.

Lena stood up and walked over to her desk. She picked up her phone and started typing out a text message.

 **Lena L (11:17am):** Have I caught you in enough time to ask if you have lunch plans?

 **Kara D (11:18am):** miss me already? :D no lunch plans, though i have a lot of transcribing to do. i’ll probably pick something up and eat at my desk, tbh

 **Lena L (11:18am):** Of course, I should have thought of that. Another time, then?

 **Kara D (11:18am):** def yes!


	6. Batter Up

For the second consecutive weekend, Lena was dressed in casual clothes and had left her apartment to socialize. This was a new record for her life so far in National City. After going out with Kara and her friends last weekend, and then her interview on Monday, she had identified an unfamiliar feeling as the week dragged on. Eventually, she had realized what it was. 

Lena was lonely.

Her tenure as CEO of L-Corp had been marked by chaos during the early months as she dealt with the fallout of her brother’s fall from grace and subsequent incarceration. Deciding to move headquarters to the opposite coast relatively soon after had added another layer of mayhem to her days. She had taken to falling asleep exhausted in her apartment, and sometimes in her office, long after the sun had set. After the dust had settled somewhat, her schedule was still busy enough and her workload heavy enough that she still didn’t feel like much was missing.

Apparently all it took was a lunch date and one night out with her new friends to make her feel the lack, and as the week wore on, she had been feeling more and more discontented with her usual routine of wake up, work, go to sleep, rinse and repeat. Thank goodness Kara had texted her on Friday with a breezy message advising Lena to park on the street for the softball game instead of the parking lot, since it was usually full on Saturday afternoon. 

Lena had felt immediately cheered by knowing that Kara wasn’t just asking to her attend - instead, she was assuming that Lena would be there. Friendship didn’t usually happen to Lena this easily, but Kara’s warmth was so unassuming that Lena’s usual defenses didn’t feel triggered. 

She had arrived a little early and secured a parking spot on the street. It was a warm, bright day and she removed her jacket, laying it next to her on the bleachers and squinting as she adjusted her sunglasses. Several of the other spectators in the bleachers had worn baseball caps. The only baseball cap Lena owned was left over from a brief relationship during her college days that said “SMITH SOFTBALL.” She had decided against wearing it, wanting to avoid the conversation she had played out in her head.

_ Did you go to Smith? _

_ No, MIT. _

_ Why are you wearing a Smith cap? _

_ My girlfriend in college played softball at Smith. _

It was ridiculous, she knew, but she didn’t want any version of that conversation to happen in front of Kara. What if Kara thought Lena still was hung up on her ex, and that was the reason she was hesitant to start a new relationship? And then what if Kara decided that she needed to keep her distance from someone who harbored feelings from a relationship more than a decade old? Even though there was no truth in any of that, and Kara didn’t seem like the type of person to make up deep psychological analyses based on the wearing of a hat, Lena left the cap at home. She knew she would be self-conscious enough from her own worry that it was simpler that way.

She had also thought about and rejected getting a cap from the L-Corp supply room where the corporate branded stress balls, calculators and other tchotchkes were stored. She didn’t want to wear any obvious symbol that would create even the subconscious impression of competition or distance between herself and Kara. 

She knew she was radically overthinking things, but could no more help it than she could help breathing.

Lucy had arrived with Winn and Lena watched her help him carry a large cooler over to CatCo’s dugout. She stayed in the dugout watching the team warm up while Winn brought a smaller cooler up into the bleachers and sat beside Lena. He wore cargo shorts and a T-shirt that said “Head Cheerleader” in letters the same blend of aqua and teal as the CatCo Worldwide Media logo.

This week, the L-Corp Aces of Bases were playing the CatCo Mound Pounders. Winn informed Lena that the CatCo team had reluctantly chosen the name after they had rejected his first three suggestions of Pitches Be Crazy, Master Batters and We’ve Got the Runs. 

Lena wasn’t sure whether to be grateful that L-Corp’s team name was comparatively tame or jealous that it wasn’t as edgy. 

“Does Lucy play?” Lena asked, thinking she detected something wistful in the women’s posture.

“Oh yeah, she’s really good,” Winn said. “I think the team would love to have her join if it wouldn’t be so unfair to recruit a ringer. Want something to eat?” he asked, opening up the cooler. Inside was an assortment of food and drinks. He helped himself to a diet Coke.

“Maybe in a bit,” Lena said, sipping from her water bottle. 

Lena watched as Kara and James threw the ball back and forth at an ever-increasing clip. They had started tossing it easily, with plenty of pauses to windmill their arms and stretch their legs and necks, but now that they were warmed up, their throws were getting faster. Lena thought she could hear the air sing as the ball whizzed from Kara’s fingertips and flew into James’ glove with an audible  _ smack. _

The L-Corp team had already completed their warmup on the field and had returned to the dugout. She didn’t recognize every person on the team, since L-Corp employed more than fifteen hundred people in their National City office alone. She did recognize Eve Teschmacher from the R&D team, as they had worked closely together on a couple of projects in Metropolis.

Her phone buzzed with a text message.

**Samantha A (2:53pm):** We’re almost there. Soccer practice ran a little late.

**Lena L (2:53pm):** I’m sitting in the bleachers.

“Who plays where?” Lena asked. 

“Well, Kara’s pitching today. I think when she’s not pitching she’ll probably play shortstop, although this is her first game since she came back to CatCo,” Winn replied.

“Did she play before?”

“There wasn’t a team before. They just joined the league last year, when Kara was at the Trib.”

“I see. What about James?”

“James is the first baseman because he has amazing reach. Nia’s the shortstop, and that guy Mike with the beard plays second base or pitches. Mackenzie’s on third, Leslie’s right field, Hayashi is center, and Dave is in left. Siobhan catches most of the time. They switch around a bit, but generally that’s the usual lineup. What about you guys?”

“I have no idea. I just found out last weekend that we have a team. I feel a little badly about that.”

“Hey, at least you’re here. I don’t think Cat Grant has ever made it out to a game. Granted, it’s not really her scene.”

“Does it seem like my scene?” Lena asked, amused.

“I mean, not on the surface, but you have the whole lesbian thing going on for you.”

“Okay, touché.”

Sam arrived with her teenage daughter Ruby and they clambered up the risers of the bleachers. Ruby’s hair was falling out of a ponytail and she wore a sweaty T-shirt, soccer shorts and slides.

“We made it before kickoff!” Sam said, sitting next to Lena.

_ “Mom,” _ Ruby said, rolling her eyes. “It’s not football.”

“Hi Ruby,” Lena said. “How was soccer?”

“Good.”

Sam and Ruby had moved with L-Corp to National City, even though Lena had protested that uprooting a 15-year-old girl in the middle of the school year was bound to be difficult and that Sam was free to stay in Metropolis. Sam had countered that Ruby was resilient, that it would actually be harder if she had to travel to National City frequently for meetings and needed to find someone to stay with Ruby, and had then implied politely that it wasn’t any of Lena’s business anyway. 

Lena was glad it had worked out as it had. Having Sam by her side had helped Lena immensely as they navigated a new direction for the company. 

Sam seemed to be able to carry in her head a current version of L-Corp’s profit & loss statement and cash flow statement, and could tell Lena whether a new project she wanted to start would negatively impact the company’s financials by showing up as a too much of a loss in the current quarter. Sam had already made space for some of Lena’s more ambitious ideas to put down roots and begin to flourish, simply by making sure there was still enough revenue from existing projects to offset startup costs for new ventures. 

That, combined with her advice on some strategic mergers and acquisitions, had kept L-Corp’s stock price healthy, and had taken the wind out of the sails of some of the board’s objections to Lena’s plans. After all, if the company’s financial performance remained strong, they didn’t have standing to obstruct new business initiatives.

More than financial wizardry, though, Sam had keen insight into people’s motivations. Her role as CFO meant that she joined Lena for parts of most board meetings, and she had started to regularly share with Lena her observations about what really drove the behavior of the board of directors. Lena had come to rely on her counsel about people nearly as much as she relied on Sam for doing her actual job.

Any guilt Lena had felt about the move uprooting Sam’s daughter had been assuaged as she heard positive updates about how Ruby had adapted to life in National City. While she and Sam hadn’t socialized together much outside the office beyond company events, Lena had asked if they’d like to join her at the softball game. She figured that if she herself had felt lonely, it was possible that Sam did too, and maybe making more of an effort was in order.

“Sam, Ruby - this is Winn,” Lena said. “He works at CatCo.”

“We’re sitting with the enemy?” Ruby said.

“The enemy has snacks,” Winn replied with a grin. “Want some?”

Ruby’s eyes lit up, and she scrambled past Lena to look with interest at what he brought out of the cooler. 

“We have cucumber sandwiches, vegan foie gras, beet and goat cheese empanadas, water crackers...” Winn went on listing an impressive menu, removing and stacking an ever-increasing pile of Tupperware from his cooler.

While Ruby ransacked Winn’s cooler, Lena turned to Sam.

“Do you know who’s on our team?”

Sam squinted at the field. “I think most of the people are from HR and finance, but I’m not sure. Oh, and that’s Eloise.”

“Is she the jumpy accountant?”

“Yeah.”

“Eve from R&D is playing, and I recognize Otis from security, but not anyone else.” Lena sighed. “I need to get out of my office more and walk around the building.”

“Hey. You’re here, which is probably just as much of a morale boost as stopping by people’s cubes to chat and scaring them half to death would be.”

“Do you think I scare people?”

“Not on purpose. But even if you were the world’s biggest teddy bear,” and Sam gave Lena a glance that said  _ and we both know you’re not,  _ “random drop-by’s like that from the CEO can startle people, especially if you don’t have a reason to be there in the first place. It’s not weird if you stop by the labs, but if you popped your head over Eloise’s cube and said, ‘Hey girl, how’s it going?’ she’d probably have a heart attack.”

“She gets startled if anyone says hello to her. I can’t be held accountable for her specifically.”

“That’s true. Anyway, we’re here and it’s a beautiful day, so don’t worry about staff morale. They’re probably thrilled we’re both here.”

“Or intimidated.”

_ “Thrilled. _ That I’m here, at least.”

Lena laughed in spite of herself.

Lucy walked back from the dugout and looked with amusement at Winn’s now-depleted cooler and Ruby’s overflowing plate.

“Nice to see that somebody appreciates your efforts, Winn.”

“Lucy, this is Sam and Ruby. Sam works with me at L-Corp. Sam, Lucy is a friend of Winn’s.” She wanted to add  _ “and Kara’s,” _ but stopped herself. It was odd enough that she knew more of the people on the CatCo team than her own company’s, and she didn’t want to give Sam the wrong idea about why she was there in the first place.

Even if it wasn’t exactly the wrong idea. 

Lucy extended a hand. “Lucy Lane.”

Sam grasped her hand and blinked at the firm handshake. “Sam Arias.”

Lucy gestured at the space next to her. “May I?”

Sam glanced over at Ruby, who had reseated herself next to Winn. They were happily chattering to each other about soccer, high school, and RuPaul’s  _ Drag Race. _

“Please.”

Sam and Lucy exchanged pleasantries that Lena didn’t feel like she needed to participate in. She settled back, leaning back on the bleachers as she enjoyed the sunshine on her face and arms. With Winn on her right, Sam on her left, and the view of Kara’s lean, muscular body that was made more attractive somehow by her CatCo jersey and shorts -  _ no, I’m here to watch the L-Corp Aces of Bases,  _ she mentally corrected herself - she let out a contented sigh.

Lena had fond memories of watching her girlfriend play softball in college. Though it never felt too serious, it was one of her first real relationships. Softball wasn’t a game she’d been exposed to growing up in the Luthor household, and the novelty of learning about the sport and learning about loving women were pleasant associations. For a moment, she took Sam’s advice and let go of her worries about her job, her staff, and their perceptions of her.

The umpire shouted  _ batter up _ , signifying the start of the game.

L-Corp was the away team, so they batted first. Eve stepped up to the plate. Kara’s first pitch was a called strike, and Eve dug in and adjusted her cap. She swung at the next one and a line drive whizzed toward the shortstop.

Though diminutive, Nia had an impressive vertical jump, and she made the catch. One out. 

L-Corp managed to score one run before the inning ended, and then they took the field as CatCo was up. James grounded out to third, Nia singled, and Hayashi was out on a pop fly that caused the umpire to invoke the infield fly rule.

Then Kara was up to bat. Somehow Lena wasn’t surprised that she was the clean-up hitter. Her assumptions were borne out when Kara caught every inch of the first pitch and sent it soaring into the outfield high above the left fielder’s head.

“Up, up and away!” Winn crowed, clapping.

Kara rounded the bases and slapped high fives to her teammates as she crossed the plate. She looked up toward the bleachers and waved. Lena knew it had to be in response to Winn’s whoops, but she couldn’t deny that her heart felt like it skipped a beat when Kara’s smile widened just a bit as their eyes met before Kara rejoined her team in the dugout.

Lena accepted a cucumber sandwich that Winn passed to her and was pleasantly surprised as she took a bite. It rivaled anything she’d had prepared by a fancy catering company. 

“This is excellent.” 

“Thanks!” he said. “It’s cocktail rye with avocado-oil mayonnaise and fresh dill. But the crown jewel of it is the cucumber. It’s from my garden.”

“I didn’t see a garden at your apartment.” 

Sam paused in her conversation with Lucy to give Lena a sidelong glance, but didn’t say anything.

“It’s on the balcony,” Winn said. “I have a few containers out there, and since it faces south, there’s plenty of sun. This is a variety that grows well on a trellis. Keeping them watered is the most challenging part, but nevertheless, I persist.”

“We have the same challenge in our vertical farming division. We’ve been working on some hydroponic pods.”

“How do they work?”

“They’re filled with a substance that’s similar to the absorbent material in baby diapers - sodium polyacrylate. We’re trying to perfect a solar-activated mechanism so they can release water in liquid form.”

Winn nodded. “I get it. What’s the broader application? I can’t imagine there’s a huge market for home gardeners.”

“You’d be surprised. But anyway, we’re developing it mainly for large-scale agriculture in arid climates. If people can grow more food locally even when conditions aren’t ideal, there’s a huge downstream impact on the carbon footprint.”

Ruby had been listening at first with an expression that practically screamed  _ nerds are boring _ , but then asked with interest “What happens when the water’s gone? Is the field just filled with a bunch of dried-out pods?”

“That’s one of the best parts,” Lena said, smiling at her. “We’ve designed them so as they dessicate, they propel themselves upwards out of the soil. When they’re totally dry, they’re about the size of a softball. It’s easy to pick them up and they’re reusable. We soak them overnight and they’re ready for another round.”

“Do the farmers have to hire people to harvest the pods?”

“It’s an autonomous robotic retrieval system. At first they trampled the crops, but they’re getting better.”

“Cool,” Ruby said. She peered into Winn’s cooler hopefully.

“How are you solving the crop trampling problem?” Winn asked, getting out the last of the food and handing it over to Ruby.

“We’ve put a machine learning protocol in their operating system, so every time they go out, they get better at what they’re doing.”   
  


“Artificial intelligence algorithms? Now you’re speaking my language,” Winn said. 

“Is that part of what you do?”

“Not at CatCo,” Winn said. “I maintain the network and I’m in charge of security, all the standard corporate stuff. But I studied AI for my graduate degree. I was a contributor to the team that developed the Roomba’s robotic intelligence system that helps it learn the layout of the room.”

“Really? That’s incredible. I love my Roomba.”

“Oh my god, that is so cool. Okay, I don’t mean to fanboy here, but that is so cool that the CEO of L-Corp is using tech that I helped design!” Winn seemed momentarily overcome.

“I’ll have to get you to autograph Rosie sometime,” Lena said.

“Did you name your Roomba after the Jetson’s robot maid? I think I’m in love with you, Lena. I’ll give you free consulting anytime.”

Lena laughed. “What kind of consulting do you do?”

“Network security, but from the other side. Penetration testing, DDOS, and targeted programs. Companies hire me to try to get into their systems, and then I tell them where their weaknesses are and how to shore up their defenses. Rather than do it all myself, I wrote some programs that learn as they go. After a while, it’s like my software teaches me about trends in hacking.”

“That sounds like fun.”

“It is,” Winn said with a laugh. “It keeps me sharp and I can do it in my off hours. I did some consulting for Lucy and her dad - he’s in the Army too - but I’m not sure if that will continue now that she’s out of the service.” He lowered his voice a bit, though Lucy didn’t seem to notice that her name had come up.

“So targeted programs like Trojan horses and viruses?”

Winn nodded. “And all of that is the easy stuff. The hardest thing for companies to defend against is social engineering, because of the human factor. IT security these days is less about technical skills, and more about training staff to recognize and not fall for phishing attacks. I spend a lot of time on that at CatCo. You wouldn’t believe the moronic stuff people fall for.”

“I’ll bet I would. What’s your consulting business called?”

Winn glanced at Ruby, and then cupped his hand around his mouth and whispered to Lena,  _ “Money Schott.” _

Lena suppressed a guffaw. Of course that’s what Winn had named his company.

“And how does doing makeup fit in to all of this?”

Winn laughed. “Part of my unofficial job description now seems to be doing whatever Kara asks me to. Good try, honey!” he shouted as James flied out to right field.

The L-Corp team never regained the early lead they had held, though they made a respectable enough showing, and the final score was 7-4 for CatCo. Kara had two home runs and three base hits, while Eve and Otis had managed to lead something of a scoring run in the fifth inning. 

The teams lined up for high fives as Winn repacked the cooler with the now mostly empty Tupperware.

“We usually go out for pizza and beer after games,” he said to Lena and Sam. “You’re welcome to join us.”

“Thanks, but Ruby and I need to get home. Maybe next time,” Sam replied. She turned to Lucy, and removed a business card from her purse.

“Give me a call,” she said. Lucy accepted the card and shoved it into her back pocket. 

Lena raised her eyebrows. “I’ll walk you to your car,” she said, and walked down the bleachers with them toward the sidewalk.

“What was that about? Did you two hit it off?” she asked, once they were out of earshot.

Sam gave her a dry look. “She’s a lawyer. A  _ contract _ lawyer. I’m going to get her resume and send it to Rosa. Don’t worry, we won’t have more than one L-Corp and CatCo inter-office romance to worry about.”

Lena blushed. “That is  _ not  _ what…”

Sam interrupted her with a laugh. “I’m teasing you. But it’s good for you, Lena. No matter what happens, I haven’t seen you this chilled out since before the whole mess started. Go hang out and let your hair down.”

“My hair is down.”

“I meant metaphorically, smartass. Ruby, let’s go!” Sam laid a gentle hand on Lena’s shoulder as a gesture of goodbye.

Lena walked back toward the L-Corp dugout. She saw the team notice her approach, and deliberately schooled herself to speak in a casual tone.

“Great game, guys. Eve, nice homer in the fifth.”

As the person on the team with the closest working relationship with Lena, Eve seemed the least intimidated by the CEO of the company having attended their game.

“Thanks, boss. Want to join us for wings?”

Lena considered whether she should accept, but she also knew that her presence would put a certain kind of damper on the team’s ability to relax. While she wasn’t against socializing with employees, she preferred it to be during official company functions rather than invading their space during off hours.

“Thank you, but not today.”

Eve nodded and Lena thought she sensed a bit of relief from the other members of the team. With a wave and a chorus of  _ goodbye  _ and  _ thanks, boss _ , she turned back.

Most of the CatCo team was gone, but she saw a lone figure leaning against the backstop and balancing a bat on her fingertips. It was Kara. 

“Hey,” Kara said. “Thanks for coming.”

“Great game,” Lena said. “You looked good out there.”

She paused, but decided to let the double meaning stand.

“Thanks,” Kara grinned. “Winn said he asked you to join us - want to? The rest of the guys went off to get a couple of tables.” 

Lena was absurdly touched to know that Kara had waited for her. Of course, they could have texted her the address, but maybe Kara had known she would be less likely to show up if that had been the case. If that was true, then it meant that Kara really wanted to make sure Lena came with them and had stayed to make it happen, and... 

Lena was definitely overthinking this.

“Let’s go,” Lena said. “Where to?”

“It’s about a half mile away, near M’gann’s place. It’s one of the gay sports bars.”

“Should we walk or drive?” Lena asked, marveling that the queer community in National City was apparently large and active enough to support more than one sports bar. Although being out west in California maybe made it less of a surprise - people here seemed more outdoorsy than in what she remembered of Metropolis and its work-obsessed downtown district combined with its seemingly interminable winters. 

“I’m up for walking if you are,” Kara said.

Lena nodded. “Do you want to put your things in your car first?”

“Oh, I got a ride with James, so it’s okay. Anyway, I don’t have a car,” Kara said, shouldering her bat and leading them diagonally across the grass toward the sidewalk. 

“Does that ever get inconvenient?”

“Not most of the time,” Kara said. “I can get most places on my bike, and I never have to deal with the hassle of parking.”

Lena had to admit that there was something that sounded simpler about not owning a car at all. When she thought about it, she didn’t use her own car all that much, anyway. During the week the car service L-Corp paid for took her wherever she needed to go, and her Tesla sat in the garage of her apartment building most of the time until weekends.

The walk took them about ten minutes, and they arrived at a painted grey brick building flying two large rainbow flags. The logo was a painted white image of a ball player wearing rainbow-striped socks winding up to throw. 

“Pitchers and Catchers?” Lena said with amusement. 

“Yep! This is the baseball and softball sports bar.”

“Are there bars for other sports?”

“Just one. It’s a soccer bar called Nutmeg’s. They do a drag brunch that’s pretty fun.”

“I haven’t been to drag brunch since college.”

“We should go sometime! And the Alien Bar isn’t a sports bar  _ per se _ , but M’gann said she’ll air all the Lakehawks games, so maybe her place will become the unofficial basketball bar,” Kara said as she held the front door open for Lena.

Kara led the way out the side door to a roped-off courtyard where she stowed her bat and glove leaning against the wall. Then she and Lena sat down at an extra-long picnic table that held the six people who had decided to go out after the game.

Lena learned three things in relatively short order: that Nia’s boyfriend was called Brainy because CatCo had misspelled “Brian” on his identification badge when he was an intern, that the CatCo softball team had two opposing and passionate camps about whether pineapple was an appropriate topping on pizza, and that sitting close to Kara did alarming things to her heart rate.

The bench was a little too small to hold four people on each side so it made for a snug fit, and Lena felt her leg brush against Kara’s as they shifted to pass around pint glasses of beer. She suddenly felt hyper-aware of her body and wondered if she should scoot over to give Kara more space, but there wasn’t really anywhere for her to scoot. 

“I’m telling you, it’s the best,” Kara was saying. 

“It’s literally the worst,” was Mike’s rejoinder. “Fruit doesn’t belong on pizza.”

“Tomato is a fruit, and so is green pepper,” Winn chimed in.

“I’m talking about real fruit,” Mike insisted. “It just doesn’t go well.”

Kara nudged to get her attention as she said “Lena, where do you fall on pineapple on pizza? It’s the best ever, right?”

“I don’t think I’ve had it, to be honest,” Lena said with a smile. “But the chemistry makes sense. The acidity of the pineapple would cut the grease of the cheese.”

“See, Mike? It’s just science,” Kara said, laughing as the server brought several steaming pizzas to their tables. Kara grabbed a slice from the pineapple pie.

“You can be our taste-tester. Here, for science.”

Kara held out the slice of pizza toward Lena. Lena started to reach for it, and then realized that Kara meant for her to take a bite.

Being fed by Kara, whose blue eyes were dancing with anticipation while she watched Lena, felt intimate. There was no lascivious undercurrent; it felt like Kara was just enthusiastically taking the debate to its next logical step. Her eyes met Kara’s as she closed her mouth around the pointed end of the pizza. 

The taste was really quite good, the sweetness of the pineapple pairing well with the salty, warm cheese. Lena’s mind started to go to a place that was decidedly not innocent as she chewed and swallowed, and she took a gulp of beer to mask the blush she could feel coloring her cheeks. 

“Well?” asked Mike.

Lena thought that she might forever associate the taste of pineapple and pizza with being hand-fed by Kara, and it was possible that it was her new favorite topping.

“I’m team pineapple.” 

“Yes!” Kara pumped a fist into the air. 

The food was quickly devoured by the hungry group, and pitchers of beer were emptied and refilled. Lena was relieved that Mike, the only CatCo employee she hadn’t spent time with before seemed to either not notice that “Lena” was Lena  _ Luthor,  _ or that he simply didn’t care. Kara kept up her easy physicality with Lena, touching her forearm when she was making a point that she wanted Lena’s perspective on, or leaning over to bump her shoulder when she was laughing about something.

A few times Lena noticed James looking at her and Kara with a gentle smile, and she smiled back at him. She liked James. His affection for Winn and his friends was clear, and to Lena, he seemed to have an air of quiet calm that balanced out Winn’s more frenetic energy.

As soon as the pizza was gone, Winn suggested they play a few rounds of darts. 

“Okay, this is a tournament,” he said to the group. “We’re going to play cricket, single-elimination. The pair who comes in last has to pay for the beer. Second-last pays for the pizza. Runners-up cover the tip, and the winners cover the tax. Got it?”

“I was told there would be no math,” Mike groaned.

“Don’t worry, doofus, my phone has a calculator on it,” Lucy said, elbowing him in the ribs.

“Are you any good at darts?” Kara whispered to Lena. “I’m terrible.”

Lena had studied abroad in Ireland for a semester and had spent her fair share of time in pubs. Several of the gay bars she frequented in Dublin had women who were all too eager to teach her about darts, and later at night, about other things. It had been a while since she’d played, but hopefully the muscle memory would return quickly.

“I think I can hold my own.”

Kara wasn’t kidding - she was truly terrible at darts. For all that she could bike, hit softballs, and presumably excel at other sports, the fine motor control necessary to consistently release a dart at the right speed and angle so it would land where she wanted to it seemed elusive. 

She took each shot seriously, stepping up to the line and staring at the dartboard as if she could make the dart go where she wanted it by force of will or telekinesis. A slight crinkle formed between her eyebrows as she bit her lip and concentrated. Invariably, the dart wouldn’t land near where she intended, and for a few shots, didn’t land on the dartboard at all.

Lena, on the other hand, was in her element. While they were warming up, she was hit with a wave of sweet nostalgia. College in general had been a less complicated time in her life, and her time studying overseas had felt particularly carefree. She had been able to focus almost exclusively on robotics for the entire semester without needing to supplement her schedule with any business courses. Though she had missed Lex, being an ocean away from her complicated relationship with her mother had taken away a sense of pressure that she hadn’t even realized she had been feeling.

Lena and Kara beat Nia and Brainy handily. Lena hit the triples often enough that it was no contest against the other pair’s good-natured, slightly drunken shots. Their final match was against Winn and James, who had bested Lucy and Mike. The two losing teams battled it out for third and last places at the other dartboard.

Winn and James were stiffer competition. James in particular was devastatingly accurate, and Winn was a steady, consistent player. Lena wasn’t sure that even her Irish-inculcated expertise could carry Kara in the face of their combined proficiency.

After a turn when Kara missed the dartboard entirely with two of her three shots, she returned to stand beside Lena with a sheepish expression.

This was the first time Lena had seen Kara’s demeanor as anything besides happy and relaxed, and she couldn’t let it stand. While she hoped she wasn’t giving off competitive vibes, because she truly didn’t care if they beat Winn and James. Not normally a touchy person, she wrapped an arm around Kara’s shoulders and squeezed. She felt Kara’s shoulders relax at the touch, and kept her arm there for the duration of the rest of James’ and Winn’s turns.

She saw Winn glance over at them and raise his eyebrows. She raised one back at him as if she was daring him to say something.

Mercifully, the game was over a few turns later.

“I’m sorry!” Kara said when the game wrapped up. “But also, this is the best I’ve ever done in a darts tournament, so I’m also psyched. Nobody ever wants to be my partner.”

Lena laughed. “Well, I’m glad I could be part of this historic moment. I’ll be your partner anytime.”

“It’s a deal. I’ll be right back.” Kara excused herself and headed inside, presumably to the restroom, and James followed.

“Okay, tax and tip,” Winn said as they walked back to the table. “If I know Lucy, she’s got all this calculated out already.”

True to her word, Lucy had already done the math for their bill and had presented everyone with their totals. She had calculated 20 percent for the tip, and Lena reached into her purse and tucked triple the amount of cash in the receipt sleeve.

“You could do worse, you know,” Winn said as they waited.

Lena considered feigning ignorance or making a joke that she couldn’t possibly do worse at darts or tipping, but decided not to. While she didn’t intend to discuss with Winn her reservations about a relationship, she also didn’t want to sully whatever this thing was that she had with Kara by making disingenuous statements.

“I know,” she said. She gave him a slight nod, which he seemed to accept as a full and complete answer.

“Okay, Julie, let’s head out,” James said as he returned. Everyone else was pulling on their jackets too as the night had wound down. 

“Julie?”

“In college we called him Julie the Cruise Director.”

“I have a gift for organization and fun, what can I say?” Winn said. 

“I can’t argue with that,” Lena said. “I’ve had a wonderful time. Thank you so much for inviting me to come along.”

“I’m glad you came,” Winn said, extending a palm toward Lena. 

She hit his hand with her palm, a little off-center.

“No offense, Lena, but that was kinda weak. We’ll work on it,” he told her with a wink.

Kara rejoined them and asked “How much do we owe for the tip?”

“I took care of it,” Lena said. She belatedly wondered if she shouldn’t have, remembering her overly extravagant gifts, but Kara didn’t seem to mind.

“Thanks. I’ll get it next time.”

Lena was struck with a sudden impulse.

“Do you want a ride home?”

“Sure! That would be great.” Kara’s delighted smile convinced her that her impulse had been a good one.

Their departure wasn’t immediate, as Kara then had to say goodbye to everyone with multiple rounds of hugs and high fives, as if she wouldn’t be seeing most of them again on Monday or even sooner. She smiled affectionately. It was a good, warm thing to be Kara Danvers’ friend.

As they left, she caught Winn giving her a knowing grin. She wanted to look away or shake her head, but she just smiled back at him. 

Their walk back to Lena’s car was pleasant as afternoon waned to early evening. Most of the cars around the softball fields were gone, and Lena’s Tesla sat alone in the last light of the day.

“What’s your address?” Lena asked as she started the car. 

Kara told her, and then asked “Do you want me to pull up directions on my phone?”

“No need,” Lena said, pushing a button on the dashboard. Her Tesla spoke.

_ “Proceed west on Sotelo-Solis Way.” _

Kara lived on the west side of town in a neighborhood that seemed to live at the intersection of trendy, funky and hippie. There was none of the same tension that had threaded the air last weekend as Lena pulled over in front of a rambling bungalow that had been converted to apartments.

“This is a cute place.”

“Thanks! Want to get lunch this week?” Kara asked.

“I’d love to.”

“Great. I’ll text you. Thanks for the ride!” Kara extricated herself from the car and gently closed the door. As she climbed the porch steps with her glove and bat in hand, she turned and waved to Lena.

Lena carried the warm glow with her through the drive home and all evening.


	7. A Capitalist with a Conscience

**A Capitalist with a Conscience  
** A CatCo Magazine Exclusive Profile  
By Kara Danvers

_Lena Luthor is transforming L-Corp into a global force for good, but don’t say so to her face._

Ask Lena Luthor about her initiative to replace single-use plastics with compostable material, and she’ll talk to you about returning value to shareholders. Bring up her company’s latest efficient irrigation technology and she’ll turn the conversation to competition in the marketplace. 

But traces of her idealism shine through. When she talks about how L-Corp has improved the efficiency of their solar panels this year to generate 36% more energy, she doesn’t even seem to realize when her voice projects enthusiasm as she talks about projections for reduced carbon emissions from fossil fuels. 

The truth is, Luthor never intended to become the CEO of her family’s multinational conglomerate. She’s been at the helm of L-Corp for eight months, ever since her brother Lex Luthor was arrested by the FBI in December. She’s tight-lipped about the situation, citing a gag order from the judge and company policy to not comment on pending litigation. But she opens up about her own career path and the twist it took in the last year.

Luthor attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, completing a major in engineering and a minor in business in three years. She completed a master’s degree in engineering in another two years, and from there, assumed the position of Senior Vice President of Research & Development at her family’s company, the formerly named Luthor Corp. It was as SVP of R&D where she expected to stay, but for her brother’s arrest.

Lena Luthor won’t say much about the events that led to her becoming the leader of the company, other than yes, she did have a choice, and yes, she did make an affirmative decision to seek the job. What remains unsaid is that she’s determined to make a difference in her new position.

Since she took the reins of Luthor Corp, she’s renamed and rebranded the company as L-Corp, moved the company’s headquarters to National City, and has quietly been reordering its portfolio of work. While Luthor Corp never formalized a mission other than its succinct description as a “family business,” Lena tells CatCo Magazine that L-Corp will soon present to shareholders for a vote a charter that outlines the company’s _raison d’etre._

While just what that charter might include is not yet public, a quick perusal of the transcripts of the investor calls from L-Corp’s two most recent quarterly earnings reports yields some hints. L-Corp has chosen not to renew a contract with the United States Army to provide high-yield explosives, guided missiles and other munitions to the armed forces. The contract with the Army will now include only body armor and shielding for tanks.

But the most interesting items are found in the “Areas of New Business” section. Besides the aforementioned solar panels, compostable plastic and irrigation pods, the new projects read like a laundry list of emerging technology: atmospheric carbon sequestration, vertical farming, medical technology, vaccine research, desalination of ocean water to make it potable and large-scale concepts like carbon-neutral mass transportation. There’s even a new branch of the biomedical research labs of L-Corp that will be researching ways to cure existing genetic diseases.

Mentioning to Lena Luthor that all of these new projects seem to benefit society elicits a raised eyebrow, a half smile and a comment about the untapped market for all of these new technologies. 

> **SIDEBAR: L-CORP’S COMPOSTABLE PLASTIC**
> 
> Single-use plastic came into widespread consumer use after the end of World War II. The population increase combined with advances in polymer science and the determination of companies to reduce costs by eliminating the need to accept returned glass containers created a situation where the modern consumer expects and demands this convenience.
> 
> Now, in 2020, we are awash in disposable synthetic plastic that lives forever in landfills and increasingly, outside of landfills. Recycling efforts only go so far. Plastic trash is killing wildlife on land and in the oceans. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch measures over 1.6 million square kilometers and contains 94% microplastics, some that have been shown to be over 50 years old. Microplastics have been detected in birds, fish, whales, and humans.
> 
> Plastic is a planet-wide emergency, and L-Corp is doing something about it.
> 
> “The challenge with biodegradable plastic has always been about shelf life,” Lena Luthor explains. “It’s easy to make a container out of corn that can be composted. The challenge is controlling the onset of decomposition. If a bottle containing soda starts to decompose in a warehouse or in a store, then that’s obviously not a sustainable situation for the manufacturer or the consumer. At L-Corp we’ve developed a hypoallergenic plastic that won’t begin to compost until the vessel has served its purpose.”
> 
> Just how L-Corp has accomplished the task that has eluded so many other green technology companies is a proprietary secret. Is it science, supply chain management, or something else? Luthor won’t say, but tells CatCo Magazine that the first wave of biodegradable plastic is being piloted by two manufacturers, and that consumers can expect to buy products made from L-Corp biodegradable plastic in the first half of 2021. Beverages and food packaging are the first areas where you’ll see it show up. Since it’s hypoallergenic, we might all be able to stop using paper straws.
> 
> Why the focus on making plastic compostable, instead of trying to focus consumers on the three R’s - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle? Shouldn’t people seek to drink less of the beverages they can purchase from a convenience store and carry around metal water bottles everywhere they go? Wouldn’t it be better to go back to receiving milk in glass bottles and setting them outside to be picked up each morning? Lena Luthor has an answer for that too.
> 
> “At L-Corp, we live in the real world. It’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle, and the data shows that making recycling more ubiquitous and convenient hasn’t mitigated the problem of litter. It takes time to change consumer expectations and behavior en masse. Our immediate goal in this area is harm reduction. We’re meeting the world where it is right now.”
> 
> So does L-Corp want to save the earth? Here’s what Lena Luthor said when CatCo asked that question directly.
> 
> “We’re about to hold a patent on the only shelf-stable compostable plastic in the world. To assuage their consciences, consumers will demand that disposable products come in our green packaging, and manufacturers will adjust accordingly. We’ll become the sole provider of plastic packaging worldwide for the next 20 years. This is a lucrative business venture for L-Corp.”
> 
> If this explanation for how L-Corp’s motives are not altruistic reads as packaged and rehearsed, CatCo magazine is here to tell you that it was delivered by the L-Corp CEO as if she was reciting a talking point. We leave the reader to draw their own conclusions.

L-Corp’s rebranding isn’t just about its name or mission. It was a bold decision to move the headquarters of the company to National City from Metropolis, where it had stood ever since its founding. Metropolis was also the longtime home of the Luthor family. Asked about this decision, Luthor cites the greater availability of real estate to expand L-Corp’s labs, as well as a fresh start.

And Lena Luthor herself? While she may not have intended to spend her time doing business instead of science, she seems to have a knack for it. L-Corp’s stock price has increased by 10% since the move and JPMorgan Chase has upgraded their recommendation of LCRP from “hold” to “buy” after last month’s earnings call.

Luthor intends for her company to have a positive impact locally as well as globally. Besides L-Corp’s portfolio of science and manufacturing work, the L-Corp Foundation has already been funding some of National City’s most beloved charities - Children’s Hospital, Housing First, and the National City Food Pantry, to name just a few. 

Her philanthropy is personal, too. Lena Luthor has been an out lesbian since her college days at MIT, where she led a coalition of students and administrators to convince the university to offer health care benefits to same-sex domestic partners of employees. The L-Corp Foundation has included in their giving for 2020 the NCLGBTQ+CC - National City’s community center for LGBTQ+ and allied people. Beyond that, Luthor has also made a personal donation to fund construction of a new crisis center and shelter for young people who are forced from their homes as a result of their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. 

Luthor describes her passion as the practical application of science. If you think of pure science as being driven by the quest to know things, then applied science is using that knowledge with a goal in mind. Luthor says that pure research is its own worthy pursuit, if only because so many useful discoveries have resulted as side effects of the quest to simply find out an answer to a question. Then what do we do with that knowledge? That’s a question L-Corp poses to itself daily.

Even though she won’t say so explicitly, all the evidence points toward Lena Luther transforming L-Corp to become a company that intends to better the lot of humanity on Earth. The business is tightly managed and seems poised to address climate change and waste in a way that dwarfs other companies that have explicitly stated that as a goal. More than Tesla, more than SpaceX, and more than Cleantech, L-Corp’s diverse portfolio and track record of delivering on their commitments puts them truly in the running to have a measurable impact on the planet and our quality of life.

National City is better for L-Corp - and Lena - having moved here, and the Earth might just be too.

_The author is grateful to Nia Nal for additional research and fact-checking_


	8. Baby in the Sheets, Exec in the Streets

Lena had been waking up early for so long it had become involuntary, and she no longer needed to set an alarm. Her days had already been busy when she was in charge of R&D, but when she became the CEO, her learning curve steepened rapidly. Demands for her time and attention seemed to increase exponentially. With a limited number of hours in the day, she had needed to increase the number of hours she spent working until there was no room left for anything else. 

The mechanics of the work itself weren’t the issue. In some ways being the CEO was less intellectually challenging than her previous position in research and development, at least to her scientific brain. Her ability to figure out chemical formulas and how to translate theoretical concepts to production were less valuable in her new role. Leading the company required much more from her in other areas like communication, negotiation and charisma.

She also had to be aware of the power dynamics in play, mostly with the board as it related to herself and occasionally her executive team. Lena often wished she could construct a physical model of the influence, pressure points and intersections among the people of L-Corp so that any given time she could calculate how to convince a certain person of the rightness of her proposed plan. However, human motivations stubbornly refused to be quantified by engineering principles. She was forced to learn how to swim with sharks by swimming with sharks.

Slowly but surely, her available time for any semblance of a personal life had eroded - not that her self-imposed singlehood since her disastrous breakup with Veronica Sinclair had left her with any desire to date. Her friends had been Lex and various people in R&D. Lex was in jail and she didn’t see her scientist colleagues every day. Even if they had mutually made more than a token effort, she simply didn’t have the time for coffee runs and group lunches anymore.

The one area where she tried to reserve at least six hours for herself was sleep. Without consistent sleep at a bare minimum level, Lena didn’t function well. Her temper was shorter and her brain felt sluggish. The low-level anxiety she felt about her new position on top of the feelings of betrayal and the seismic shift in the foundation of her life wasn’t great for sleep. So she had sought solutions.

Sometimes she rolled her eyes at herself, adopting the woo-woo California new age recommendation of a weighted blanket, but she had to admit that it helped. When she settled down to sleep at night, the pressure from the blanket was comforting. She wouldn’t have admitted this to anyone, but she sometimes pretended that she was back inside the womb. And really, newborns slept better when they were swaddled, didn’t they? Maybe a weighted blanket was helping her body remember her first months of life when her biggest problems were being hungry or tired.

Lena didn’t have clear memories from her early childhood when she lived with her mother in Ireland, other than vague mental pictures of a smiling woman with dark hair, the impression of green, and the sea. Her first crystal-clear memory was of sitting in an airplane, shocked into silence as it carried her from the only home she had ever known to what would become her new home in Metropolis with the Luthors.

So at night when she was falling asleep, and in the early mornings when her body began to wake, she clutched her blanket around herself and pretended that it was a different time, and that she was a baby again. That someone else would make all decisions for her, and no one would ever look at her with any expression other than affection and approval. That nobody wanted anything from her that she was reluctant to give.

Lena would never tell anyone else about these daydreams, and she didn’t cling to them when the sun began to rise over the horizon and to peek through the cracks of her room-darkening blinds. It was time to face another day.

Her morning rituals of coffee, shower, and dressing in her work clothes helped her shed the last vestiges of sleep and nostalgia. Dressed, her hair pinned up, and fully lipsticked, Lena was ready to face her Monday head on.

Luckily her Mondays always began with a full meeting of her executive team. By and large, she trusted her direct reports. She was certain that the people she had retained after Lex’s arrest hadn’t been in cahoots with him. The ones she didn’t trust she had fired, if they hadn’t already been arrested.

Her executive team consisted of a general counsel, chief financial officer, chief marketing officer, a chief information officer, the head of research and development, and the human resources vice president. 

She had kept Rosa as general counsel, as she believed that Rosa had had no idea that her deputy Edgar had been enabling Lex’s misdeeds by advising him on legal loopholes and covering up certain contracts. Hilary, the CMO, had been similarly in the dark, since Lex hadn’t needed any of his clandestine deals marketed to the general public. It was the same with the CIO Nicole and VP of HR Dewayne. In fact, Nicole’s department had been instrumental in detecting anomalous activity on the Luthor Corp network which started the chain of events that led to Lex’s arrest.

However, the chief operating officer and CFO had both been in on the dirty business with Lex, and they were both in federal custody. Promoting Sam Arias to CFO had been an easy decision. She had been mentoring Rafael, whom she had promoted to Acting VP of R&D, since she had vacated that position. She still hadn’t replaced the COO, however, and Lena was doing that job along with her role as CEO. That was part of the reason she was so busy all the time.

At L-Corp, the COO was responsible for the operations of the company and took the lead on sales, partnerships and production. In some ways, that role was the easiest for Lena to do double duty for, but the strain was wearing on her. She had been considering whether she wanted to promote someone from her staff or hire from the outside. There were pros and cons to both options. 

Promoting someone from L-Corp’s staff would reduce the learning curve required, and she wasn’t sure a qualified candidate from the outside would even want to take on the challenging and sometimes chaotic work at a company that was struggling to shed a sinister reputation. On the other hand, she didn’t yet feel totally confident in the skills or readiness of any of the top candidates from her staff.

She entered the executive meeting room, pleased to see that everyone was already there. As always, Jess had arranged for an assortment of pastries, fruit and coffee for the meeting. Lena helped herself to coffee and some sliced melon.

Part of L-Corp’s green initiative, a committee that employees had formed during the move to National City, was to reduce single-use waste products, so the porcelain plate and coffee mug made a clink as Lena set them on the table. 

There had been a debate about whether the carbon footprint of running several dishwashers daily was larger or smaller than the energy required to produce compostable single-use dishes. The scientist members on the green team had taken it upon themselves to do a comprehensive study, and had shown from their calculations that the high-efficiency dishwashers used less energy than the manufacturing energy required to produce compostable dishware. Powered as they were by L-Corp’s large investment in solar and wind energy to run the building in National City, the carbon footprint was close to zero.

What had started as a feel-good exercise for an internal company project had ended up being published in the Journal of Fundamentals of Renewable Energy and Applications, and had put L-Corp’s headquarters debut in National City in a positive spotlight. 

Lena had retained an executive coach during her first months on the job, and that person had recommended fostering an informal atmosphere at the executive team meetings. One of her suggestions was to have the team bring in a coffee mug from home for the meetings and to tell the team about it as an icebreaker. Lena’s mug had been a bland white vessel from a matching set of dishes she had purchased upon moving to National City. After her first three months, on the job, her team had surprised her with a new one.

Now her mug was a tall cream-colored cup that said “Fucking Great CEO.” She would normally never have considered using such a thing, but she had been absurdly touched. Jess had laughed out loud when she’d seen it, a rarity in and of itself, and had made sure it was always waiting for her on Monday mornings. 

Today, Hilary had a publication on top of her folders, and was practically vibrating out of her seat as Lena settled herself at the head of the table.

“Good morning, folks. We have an actual agenda, but it looks like Hilary’s going to have an aneurysm if she doesn’t get to speak soon.”

Hilary rolled her eyes at Lena, but took her cue and waved the copy of CatCo Magazine for everyone to see. 

Lena saw her own face looking back at her. The cover photo showed her standing in front of the desk in her office, arms crossed across her abdomen, looking directly at the camera. Her back was straight and she was leaning slightly against the desk. The picture showed her from the torso up, and she was wearing a black suit jacket with a red scoop-necked shell underneath.

The most remarkable part of the picture, though, was that she was actually smiling. She remembered the photo shoot portion of the interview, where the photographer had seemed dissatisfied with the poker face she presented to him. After the interview, Kara had asked that he take a few more pictures, and she stood behind him telling Lena ridiculous jokes.

_“What did the electrical engineer say when she got shocked? ‘That hertz.’”_

_“Why was the thermometer smarter than the graduated cylinder? It had more degrees.”_

Lena wasn’t a huge fan of being on camera or having her photo taken. Her first few interactions with the press during the early days in Metropolis had been marred by feeling ambushed by reporters from the Daily Planet who seemed convinced that she was part of her brother’s illegal activities. The pictures that ended up on the front page inevitably showed her frowning, looking for all the world like an evil queen scheming about world domination.

Too often in those earlier days she had struggled with answers to questions that were phrased with a presumption of her complicitness. After enough of her fumbling responses had ended up in print, she had decided on a policy of not speaking to the press in situations where she didn’t have control. L-Corp’s media strategy had evolved into press releases and the PR staff giving comments by phone. Lena limited her own interactions with journalists to brief press conferences where she took few questions, and had adhered to that policy in National City.

This story in CatCo Magazine was the first voluntary interview she had given since moving the company headquarters.

“This is, if you’ll pardon the expression, fucking awesome,” Hilary said, distributing copies to everyone at the table. “It’s a great article, first of all. And so far, the chatter on social media seems overwhelmingly positive.”

“LCRP is up two points in early trading,” Sam said, leafing through her copy as she referred to the tablet next to her which displayed the L-Corp page on the New York Stock Exchange. “There’s an article already on Business Wire recommending L-Corp as a socially responsible investment for pension funds.”

“Proud of you, boss,” Rafael told her.

“Thank you,” Lena said. “It’s only possible for L-Corp to get positive press because of the progress we’re making on our new initiatives, and you’ve led those initiatives very well in the last months. So let’s get started on the agenda, shall we? The first order of business is timely.” She pressed a button on her tablet.

The agenda was no longer a printed piece of paper - again, part of the company-wide effort to reduce corporate waste - and everyone at the table picked up their tablets as they dinged at the arrival of an incoming document. 

Agenda

  1. Promotion of Rafael Mendes to Senior Vice President, Research & Development
  2. Departmental Updates
    1. Legal
    2. Marketing
    3. R&D
    4. Finance
    5. HR
    6. Information
    7. Operations
    8. Executive
  3. Priorities for the week
  4. AOB



“The first order of business today is to congratulate Rafael on his promotion from Acting to Senior Vice President of Research & Development,” she said. “Congratulations, Raf.”

The table erupted into applause and Rafael gave a pleased smile. 

“Well-deserved,” said Dewayne, raising his coffee mug in a toast. It was from a photo-printing site and was adorned with pictures of his wife and children.

Lena took a bite of melon as the applause subsided. Rafael had been one of her most trusted colleagues when she headed up R&D. When she became CEO, she had been reluctant to transition fully out of the department, but after a couple of weeks and the arrests of both the COO and CFO, it had become clear that the department needed a leader who could give projects and staff their full attention. 

Raf had engineering smarts and a solid research background, but he hadn’t had very much management experience. Lena knew that sometimes the best scientists were the worst managers, and she hesitated to introduce more confusion into the department until she was sure, so she had made him the Acting VP and had kept her ear to the ground. 

After a few months, it had become clear that Raf was not only a brilliant scientist and engineer, but that he also had a knack for people. He had tackled management like a science project, reading the available literature, forming hypotheses, and consulting with experts. 

Most management books recommended no more than seven direct reports for any manager. Raf had reorganized the department to follow that advice, starting with his own direct reports. He had promoted talented and capable people and made sure they kept their own direct reports at or below seven. Then he measured gains in efficiency and job satisfaction with a survey tool of his own design, and had been able to show a 12% increase in productivity in R&D over the last few months. 

Lena had been impressed.

Her own direct reports were at seven since she had asked Sam to serve as a layer between her and the Operations department. Eight, if you counted Jess, which she did, although Jess did her job with such ruthless efficiency that Lena rarely had any feedback for her other than gratitude. She did wonder about Jess’ career goals and if she wanted anything else from her job at L-Corp, but that was a question for another day.

“Let’s get started with departmental reports. Rosa, you’re up.”

Rosa Santiago’s job had been nearly as stressful as Lena’s these last several months. Not only had one of her key employees been arrested, leaving her department short-handed and Rosa reeling from the betrayal, but she’d also needed to carve out attorney time to comply with the Department of Justice’s constant requests for legal documents as they investigated the extent of Lex’s corruption. A higher workload and fewer people to do it all had led to many late nights for Rosa and the lawyers and paralegals on her staff.

“We’ve furnished the DOJ with about 88% of their subpoenaed request,” Rosa said as part of her standing update on the investigation. “There are still some documents we’re tracking down with Nicole’s help. The encryption is apparently, and I quote, “tricky.” Once that gets figured out, we’ll be in the home stretch.”

Lena nodded. The sooner they gave the government what they wanted, the sooner Rosa’s team could turn their attention full-time back to L-Corp’s business. She didn’t want to hide anything from the government, though she had acceded to legal advice about compliance with their requests in order to protect the company’s intellectual property.

“Also, we’re staffing up, thanks to Dewayne’s help. This week we’re making an offer to a full-time staff attorney, and also hiring a contractor, thanks to Sam for the connection.”

“Why a contractor?” Lena asked. 

“This attorney doesn’t want a permanent position right now,” Rosa said. “She’s ex-military and said she’s interested in short-term project work while she adjusts back to civilian life. I get it, my dad was in the Navy. The transition can be hard.”

Lena nodded, looking back at the agenda. She supposed that not everyone might view full-time employment at L-Corp as a prize to be coveted.

“That’s it, other than finalizing the contracts for the Veridian Dynamics acquisition and the Spheerical Bikes partnership. We’ll have both of those done by the end of the week.”

“Great. Hilary?”

“Well, I stole my own thunder. The biggest thing is the CatCo profile. It’s already generating interest from the press. I expect there will be several secondary pieces written about the article, as well as requests for additional interviews. I was thinking it might be a good idea to put some key staff through media training and direct some of those inquiries to them. Get some additional L-Corp voices into the world, and continue to humanize the company.” Hilary took a breath as if preparing to launch into a speech.

“Good idea.” Lena was secretly thrilled at the suggestion, as it meant fewer of the reporters would be coming her way.

Hilary blinked. “Yeah? I was expecting some pushback.”

“I think the horse is already out of the barn. I won’t go so far as to say the press restrictions are totally lifted, and we need staff to know what they can’t say about the investigation and about confidential intellectual property, but we’re doing good work. Let’s let the world know about it.”

“Mark’s going to be thrilled. He’s been saying he’s already past level four thousand on Candy Crush.”

“Yes, Director of Public Relations when there are no relations to the public is a tough job,” Dewayne observed dryly.

“Okay, then everyone, I want names of your best people for media training, directors and project leads to start. We’ll get it set up this week.” Hilary sipped herbal tea from her Lily Pulitzer mug as she concluded.

Lena nodded. “Raf, you’re up.”

“My top priority just became nominating my best people for media training,” Raf said to the laughter of everyone around the table. He took a sip of coffee from his ceramic mug, which said “ENGINEERING FUEL” on the side in stark black letters. 

“Otherwise, all the projects in our portfolio are moving on schedule,” he said. “We’ve made some improvements in the Spheerical bike frame, and I want to produce another prototype before moving toward mass production.”

“What kind of improvements?” Lena asked. 

“We’ve perfected our 2K carbon fiber, and we’ve been able to eliminate the last 20% of 3K carbon fiber we had in it,” he replied. “It’s reducing the weight of the frame by two ounces. Significant enough that Jack said it was worth it.”

Lena felt amused that Raf and Jack were now apparently on a first-name basis, but she was much more intrigued about how Raf had achieved the manufacture of pure 2K carbon fiber, the lightest and strongest type of carbon fiber available. Only two manufacturers in the world produced it, and it was very expensive. That was why Jack hadn’t been able to use it for an affordable version of his bike before Lena had called him. Even mixing 2K and 3K had still made the bike too expensive.

“How did you get the 2K process down pat?”

“Temperature and tension,” Raf said. 

Lena rolled her eyes at him. It was a hackneyed joke among materials scientists and engineers. Most industrial production of materials came down to the right combination of temperature and tension. In school, Jack had compared it to the blacksmiths of yore, folding steel over again and again in the forge to make strong swords that wouldn’t shatter during battle. 

Lena had rolled her eyes at that analogy too.

He laughed. “Trial and error, mostly error. Time and money. The most important step turns out to be the polymerization. If you don’t get that right, then you might as well throw away the whole batch because your target coefficient will be hosed…”

Dewayne cleared his throat. Lena looked up and noticed the glazed look on her other executives’ faces. She had tried to limit the technical speak at her leadership meetings on his feedback that she and Raf tended to go off on deep tangents and bore everyone else.

“Good work, Raf,” she interrupted. “We’ll follow up more offline. Sam, you’re next.”

Sam’s mug had been hand-painted by Ruby at age 7, and said “happy mothers day mom love RUBY xoxooxxx” in straggling bright red letters that meandered around the vessel. 

“Cash flow good, stock price steady - up another point since the markets opened - and ROI looking good on active projects. We’re taking a profitability hit on most of the new work that won’t pay off for another few years until we can go to market, but that was expected. The biggest issue is our liquidity,” Sam said in her usual laconic style. “We need more cash.”

“How soon?”

“We probably have another six months before the situation gets serious, but nothing currently in development will be able to contribute.”

“Options?”

“Several. Cut costs, increase sales, or issue more shares.”

“Recommendation?”

“There’s only so much to be saved by cutting costs,” Sam said. “We could reduce headcount or use cheaper raw materials.”

There was an immediate outpouring of protest from the group.

“But my department is already down three full-time equivalents…”

“We can’t cut corners on production or else we’ll make shoddy goods…”

Sam held up her hand, quelling the dissent. “Right, which is why I’m not recommending it. The best way would be to issue more shares.”

“How many?” Lena asked.

“We could use $500 million. My preference would be $750, but I can work with $500.”

Lena did some quick calculations in her head. She would still hold a plurality of the shares in existence, but her percentage would decrease to a thinner margin than she felt comfortable with. Giving up her controlling share was not something she wanted to do, especially while Lex’s portion was still in dispute.

“What about increasing sales?”

“It could help. If we boost sales by 50% in the next two quarters, we could put the stock plan on ice. But we’d need someone to be able to focus on it full-time.” Sam coughed delicately.

Lena knew what she was driving at. Sales would usually fall under the Chief Operating Officer, and since she’d dragged her feet on hiring one, certain important functions had been neglected. L-Corp’s sales team was good, but in the absence of someone energetically driving the agenda, they had mostly fallen into a rut of renewing contracts at flat rates while the pace of new business had plateaued. No one knew that better than she, since she was responsible for presenting the numbers to the board. 

She sighed. It was probably time to admit that she couldn’t do everything herself.

“This is a good transition to you, Dewayne. Looks like we’d better start a search for a new COO.”

He nodded, as if he’d been expecting this. “Internal, or external?”

“I’d like to consider anyone internal who could conceivably do the job well,” Lena said. “Thoughts?”

There was silence around the table. 

“Fine,” she said. “External it is. Though I want all of you to take a second look at your top staff. The COO job is different in every company, but at L-Corp, we need someone with scientific fluency who also has the sales gene. I don’t have to tell you how rare that is, but maybe we just haven’t looked hard enough. Sometimes we pigeonhole people into their job titles rather than considering the totality of their potential skills and talents.”

Lena herself was living proof of that. She had always thought of herself as an engineer, and business minor aside, she had quietly prided herself on being a scientist first and foremost. She had spent her fair share of time sitting at a table like this with Lex at the head, arguing with him about the need to increase her R&D budget midyear.

But when she was thrust into the role of CEO, she quickly came to see how many people employed by L-Corp depended on the company and their jobs. They were people who had families and lives they had built around the expectation that the company was a dependable, consistent place of employment for them. And like it or not, she was responsible for making decisions that kept the company afloat.

It was funny how quickly that responsibility had sharpened and focused her thinking. She still held science in high regard - they were a technology and engineering company first and foremost, after all - but it was a simple fact that if she allowed L-Corp to run out of money, that there would be no science happening anyway.

Lena didn’t think she was flattering herself that she was proving to be a good CEO. What surprised her was how much she liked it. She’d never thought of herself as a leader in anything besides a laboratory, but here she was, and here they were.

“I’m on it,” Dewayne said. “I’d like everyone’s recommendations by Wednesday.” He glanced around the table. “And I’ll work on a job description. For this, we may want to consider an executive search firm.”

“Prepare your top three recommendations for firms. Anything else?”

“The annual sexual harassment training is almost half done,” he said. “But this year I was thinking of adding another component.”

“What kind?”

“Small group discussion led by a professional facilitator,” he said. “The recorded videos are pretty dull, and we’ve been doing it that way for years. It’s the kind of thing employees can play in the background without engaging with the material in a thoughtful way. Marcia has some data that shows that small group discussions that focus on empathy can improve outcomes. She said it helped matters over at Lord Technologies.”

Lena snorted. Maxwell Lord’s fall from grace due to sexual harassment allegations had been the front page story at the National City Tribune during her first week after the move, and she was still surprised that he had managed to hold on to his position.

“Do we have a sexual harassment problem?” Hilary asked. 

“No more than any other company our size,” Dewayne said. “But I’m in favor of not waiting until it gets out of hand, especially after the last couple of years of MeToo. Ounce of prevention, and all that.”

“What’s the time investment for each staff member?” Lena asked. 

“An hour of prep work, and two half-days with a facilitator over the course of a week. We’ll start with directors and above here and in Metropolis, rotating departments. We should be able to finish the first round by the end of Q4.”

“Will that work for everyone?” Lena asked. 

Everyone around the table nodded.

“Excellent. You have the green light, Dewayne. Last but not least, Nicole.”

The CIO took a sip from her mug, which sported a drawing of a sign by a pond that read simply _No phishing_. “The firewall upgrade is complete. We had some complaints last week from staff who were trying to VPN in, but most of it ended up being user error with the two-factor authentication. The L-Corp firewall is now virtually impenetrable to outside threats.

“We’re also doing enhanced background checks as part of the hiring process,” she continued. “We’ll start with Rosa’s new hires and will make it standard for anyone who accepts an offer.”

“Why not for anyone to whom we make an offer?” Lena asked.

“It’s not cheap, and if they don’t accept the job, we don’t want to blow our budget.” Nicole shrugged.

“What about the Wi-Fi upgrades for R&D?” Raf asked. “The DNA lab has been complaining about it.”

“In progress, but it’s going to take some time.”

“What’s the issue?” Lena asked.

“Security,” Nicole answered. “Not a problem when it’s corporate hardware, but people want their phones and devices to be able to access it too.”

“Right,” Lena said. “I mean, what’s the issue with the DNA labs and Wi-Fi?”

“The DNA labs are underground to minimize exposure to ambient radiation and airborne spores,” Raf said. “There isn’t cell service there, and the biologists want their personal phones to be able to get text messages and take phone calls.”

“I sympathize,” Nicole said. “But allowing personal devices to connect to the corporate network is a security risk. If people would agree to install the L-Corp app on their phones, then it would bring the risk down to within acceptable parameters.”

“The app is 6 gigabyes,” Raf said. “It’s more than a lot of smaller phones can handle.”

“If people upgrade to the latest phones…”

It was clear this wasn’t a new disagreement. Lena moved to cut it off.

“What about a guest network?” she suggested. “No access to corporate fileshares or anything else, just like a regular plain-Jane network that people can use for their personal devices.”

“Of course, why didn’t I think of that?” Nicole said with an edge of sarcasm.

Lena waited patiently, as she had learned was best with her sometimes irascible CIO.

Nicole sighed. “Guest wireless networks are still a security risk, not to mention that we’ll need to upgrade about 40% of the routers near the DNA lab. It’s not possible to guarantee 100% that a guest network wouldn’t be vulnerable to a breach.”

“The productivity of the molecular biology labs is suffering because people keep going upstairs to get a signal,” Raf said. 

“That sounds like a supervisory problem,” Nicole said.

“Listen...” Raf began.

“It’s not because of malingering,” Sam piped up from the sidelines, where she had been watching the back and forth with detached amusement.

“Oh?” Lena prompted her.

“A lot of the staff in that lab have kids in daycare or school, and they need to be reachable during the day in case their kids get sick and need to be picked up early.” She inspected her fingernails. “Ruby’s in the same grade as the Greenberg twins. Sometimes we carpool.”

Nicole looked chastened, but set her mouth in a stubborn line. “It’s still a security risk, and I’m responsible for security. I’m obligated to raise the issue.”

Sparring between her executives was nothing new, of course. Part of the reason Lena held weekly meetings and encouraged her team to speak openly was to expose issues and work through solutions by allowing opposing viewpoints to be debated. But as the dispute between Nicole and Raf threatened to head into unproductive territory, Lena exercised her judgment as CEO and stepped in to make the decision.

“All right,” she said. “You’ve both had your say, and I’ve heard both sides. People need to be reachable during business hours, and there’s a security risk that is not zero. We’re going to give a guest wireless network a try. Nicole, you have budgetary authority to acquire new routers for the DNA lab. And Dewayne, talk to facilities about a location and cost analysis for an onsite daycare.”

He nodded. 

“Everyone good?”

Raf and Nicole nodded.

“Great,” she said, checking her tablet. Ten minutes left for her operations and executive update. 

“Operations is good, though currently without anyone in charge, and the executive who thought she could do both jobs has learned her lesson. We’ll be searching for a new Sales VP in parallel, though the new COO might want to bring in their own person. I’ll be calling a meeting with the sales directors in case anyone wants to throw their hat in the ring.

“On the executive side, the quarterly board of directors meeting is next week, and we’re having it here. You’re all invited to the post-meeting pre-dinner happy hour to mix and mingle. Your attendance is not optional, I’m afraid. If I blink twice, kidnap me.”

They all laughed.

“Other priorities for the week. Dewayne has something, I believe?”

He grinned. “National City Children’s Hospital has an annual trick or treat event for the patients who aren’t able to leave. We’re taking a group over to hand out candy. Staff can attend without using their PTO, and they should sign up on the intranet if they want to go. Let your managers know that all requests to attend should be approved, unless someone’s sick or working on a mission-critical project. We want to have a good showing.”

“Great. Anyone else?”

They all shook their heads.

“Any other business?”

There was none.

“Thanks for your time,” Lena said, swallowing the last of her cold coffee and grimacing at the taste. “Everyone have a great week.”

She watched as her team gathered up their tablets, notebooks and coffee mugs, depositing the mugs on the tray. Jess had instructed facilities to make sure the mugs stayed in a separate part of the catering kitchen on the executive floor so they were always available for Lena’s Monday meetings. She wasn’t superstitious, but the cheeky and sentimental coffee mugs appearing consistently at the beginning of the work week made her feel at home.

Lena knew that work was work, and people who said their workplace was like a family were expressing wishful thinking instead of reality. For her, though, with her family either dead, estranged or in jail, this group of people and their consistent presence in her life did feel a bit like it.

As she left the room, she picked up a copy of CatCo magazine that Hilary had left on the table. She shook her head, smiling, and stopped to tap a note on her tablet.

_Lena L: Jess, please send flowers to Kara Danvers with a note thanking her for the article._

_Jess H: got it. to home or CatCo?_

_Lena L: To CatCo._

_Jess H: got it. Gerber daisies and lilies okay?_

_Lena L: Yes._

_Lena L: No. Wait!_

_Jess H: k. roses?_

_Lena L: Scratch that. Don’t send flowers._

_Jess H: …_

_Lena L: Make it an Edible Arrangement._

_Jess H: lollllllllllllllll_


	9. Where's My Salad

It was Friday, which meant that before Lena went to the office, she had an early morning appointment with her massage therapist. Joanna didn’t usually meet clients at 7:30am, but she made the exception for Lena. One of the reasons Lena so valued her specific massage therapist was that she used so much pressure during her deep tissue massages that it shut down her ability to think. 

Lena usually went into her massage appointments feeling guilty about taking an hour for herself, or fuming from the previous days’ interaction with a condescending member of her board of directors. Even when she wasn’t aggravated, she often spent the first minutes of her time on the table trying to think around the corners of problems. Sometimes her brain felt like a dog that couldn’t help itself from worrying away at a rawhide bone until it was totally consumed.

But inevitably, Joanna would put deep pressure on her back muscle or quadriceps, increasing steadily until Lena felt her brain abruptly abandon what it was ruminating over in favor of deliberately remembering how to breathe. Sometimes Lena could swear that the diminutive Joanna was able to channel twice her body weight into her elbow, which traveled up Lena’s latissimus dorsi in agonizing slowness as it flattened the muscle and coaxed the knots into releasing.

Lena’s personal goal was to endure the pressure without saying a word. When the pressure finally let up, the feeling of relief combined with the triumph of achieving a goal made Lena swear that she could physically feel the rush of endorphins hitting her nervous system. 

L-Corp was on her mind in some form or fashion during most of the day, every day, and this was the one time she could reliably count on not being able to worry about her company and her responsibilities. In her more fanciful moments, she envisioned the pressure from the massage literally squashing the stress from her body.

If some portion of the hamster wheel inside her head these days was instead allocated for thoughts about Kara Danvers instead of L-Corp, well, Lena wasn’t about to admit that to anyone. Now that Kara’s CatCo Magazine exclusive profile on Lena Luthor had been published, Lena had lost one of her reasons for telling Kara _not yet_ and she had been unable to stop wondering if it would be too clunky for her to just ask Kara on a date.

Kara had behaved exactly the same toward Lena ever since their night at the bar and conversation at the end of the night, throughout every interaction they’d had since then. The softball game, the pizza trip, and various text message exchanges since then had all felt unchanged in tone and enthusiasm, including the one from Tuesday that had said _thanks lena!!!!_ followed by a huge string of fruit emojis and a selfie of Kara grinning with a chocolate-covered strawberry in her mouth next to the enormous bouquet of pineapple, grapes, berries and melon.

Jess had outdone herself with the selection.

Lena knew that if the shoe had been on the other foot and Kara had been the one to set boundaries, she wouldn’t have been able to help feeling a little strained. She would have tried mightily not to let it show, but she also knew that trying not to let it show would have meant that she would drastically overcompensate and would end up making it twice as awkward.

As the leader of her company, Lena was calm, collected and authoritative. As the leader of her own romantic relationships, she was nervous, self-conscious, and given to overthinking. 

She desperately didn’t want to make it weird with Kara, and that was holding her back from…

Lena jerked as Joanna put pressure on the side of her quad muscle.

“Sorry,” Joanna said, easing up. “Your IT band is a little angry today.”

“Yes,” Lena said. “Elliott said it will probably feel worse before it starts to feel better.”

“Well, stick with it,” Joanna said, her hands gentle now as they moved to Lena’s feet with a warm washcloth to wipe off any massage oil that might cause her to slip when she stood up. “Your calf muscles felt better this time. I’ll see you next week, Lena.” She exited the room.

Lena slowly eased herself off the massage table and stretched. She walked over to where she had left her folded clothes on the chair and slowly got dressed. She took her time, as if by delaying her return to work that she could prolong the feeling of calm that enveloped her after every massage.

Two hours later, back in her office, any sense of calm had long since fled. It was just after noon and Lena had endured a frustrating conference call with the board of directors. The topic had been mergers and acquisitions, but had quickly devolved into them picking apart her interview with CatCo Magazine.

Lena could handle disagreements about technology strategy, business plans and profit margins, and she had developed a thick skin about the casually insulting things the board members said about her. She waited patiently while they debated whether she had framed the company’s direction correctly, whether she had projected too much Pollyanna-esque idealism, and whether any of her quotes could be construed as criticism of the former Luthor Corp’s business ventures.

It frayed her patience, however, when speculation turned to whether Kara Danvers had ulterior motives in framing the article so positively. She didn’t mind the board’s criticism of her own performance, but she absolutely didn’t want any of the board’s insinuations about motive directed toward Kara. She knew that if she said anything to defend the reporter, though, it would focus their attention toward Kara more strongly and viciously. She responded to their comments with bored disinterest, and it was with Herculean effort that she had kept herself from letting loose some of the more sarcastic barbs she wanted to unleash.

Cranky and tense, she was tired of the telephone and of sitting behind her desk. She walked across the office and opened the door so she could speak to Jess. 

“Jess. Is my salad here yet?”

“Nope,” Jess replied. She didn’t glance up from her computer screen.

Lena paused. Jess was never rude like this. Had Lena done something to antagonize her?

“Jess,” she tried again. “Did you order my salad?”

“Nope.”

Lena was truly baffled. Jess had a standing order for her from her favorite place, Noonan’s, and without fail her lemon kale salad would arrive each day that she didn’t have outside appointments. Sometimes it came with nuts and tofu, sometimes with salmon, and every now and then with chicken or beef. Jess varied the order so Lena didn’t eat exactly the same thing every day, and she had an uncanny ability to sense when Lena was craving more protein.

Lena felt at a loss. “Jess. Where’s my salad?”

Jess picked up her phone and tapped on it.

“Any minute now.”

There was a _ding_ from the elevator. The doors opened and Kara stepped out, carrying two white bags full of food, if the delicious aroma was anything to judge by. She flashed a smile at Lena, who stood motionless, hoping her mouth wasn’t gaping open. Kara paused and removed a container from one of the bags and placed it on Jess’s desk.

“Have a great lunch, you two!” Jess said. 

“Coming?” Kara said to Lena, and walked into her office.

Lena shot Jess a bewildered look and followed Kara Danvers into her own office. 

Kara was at the coffee table, already removing a container from one of the bulging bags. 

“I wasn’t aware that we had lunch plans,” Lena said as she walked over to the couch.

“We didn’t,” Kara said. “But Jess and I were texting, and she said you were on a rough call. She asked if I was free for lunch with you.”

“You and Jess text?”

“Not usually,” Kara responded. “But I had texted you earlier to see if you were doing anything for lunch because I was stopping by to bring Lucy coffee and doughnuts for her first day.

“When you didn’t respond I figured you were in a meeting, so I texted Jess. I told her I’d be in the building and she asked if I wanted to join you for lunch. Here’s your salad,” Kara handed the box to her from Noonan’s.

Lena bit her lip as she took the box, trying to wrap her head around the situation. Sensing her disquiet, Kara spoke again.

“Does it make you uncomfortable?”

“Maybe? I’m not sure,” Lena responded. “Not that you’re here, but more that Jess would take it upon herself to decide that I needed a lunch date.”

“I get it. I can go, if you want. But take it from me, it’s a sign of a good executive assistant that she did. The more she gets to know you and can sense your moods, the more initiative she can take to help you pivot and recover from stressful situations. I can’t count the number of times I wished I could have set up lunch for Ms. Grant when she was on a tear about something, but she didn’t really have any friends.”

Lena suppressed a snort.

“Oops. Please don’t tell anyone I said that,” Kara said. 

“My lips are sealed.”

“Anyway, it’s not true anymore. She has me for a friend now, at least. If calling me ‘Kiera’ and criticizing my wardrobe counts as friendship, anyway.”

“You’re actually my first friend in National City, besides anyone I work with,” Lena confessed. 

“Well, I’m glad to hear that. Or glad you have a friend now, anyway. Not glad that you didn’t have friends before.”

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” Lena said. She then regretted the self-pitying tone, and tried for sincerity. “I’m glad we’re friends too.”

“So is it okay if I stay for lunch?”

Lena just rolled her eyes. Whether Kara was staying for lunch or not had never been in doubt.

“Of course.”

“Good, because I also brought pot stickers to share, and some crab rangoon, and spring rolls,” Kara said, unpacking the bag. “I’m having chicken fried rice, and you’re welcome to have some. There’s a ton.”

“I’m going to have to start doing more cardio if I keep having lunch with you,” Lena observed dryly as she picked up her salad and one of the crab rangoon. 

“What cardio do you do?” Kara asked.

“None, right now,” Lena said. “My physical therapist wants me to start, though.

“What are you in physical therapy for? You don’t have to tell me if that’s too nosy.”

“No, it’s fine,” Lena said. “Just a little embarrassing. I have tendinitis in my Achilles tendons and I’ve been having pain in my calf muscles.”  
  
“What’s embarrassing about that? I had tendinitis last year when I ran too much.”

Lena laughed. “It’s not the injury that’s embarrassing, it’s how I got it. Back when I was the head of R&D, I was a proud member of the lab rats. We knew the importance of comfortable shoes. But since I’ve been CEO, I’ve felt pressure to dress the part. And well…” she glanced ruefully at her high heels.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Kara’s eyes shone with sincerity, though Lena wouldn’t have blamed her if she’d laughed.

“It’s my own fault. Anyway, I’m weaning myself off them. I only wear them two days a week now. Massage and physical therapy is helping, but my PT has been bugging me to do some low-impact exercise to build up the muscle.”

“What kind?”

Lena sighed. “He wants me to try swimming and pool running, but I haven’t really looked into it yet.”

“I swim a couple mornings a week, if you want to join me sometime and give it a try,” Kara said. 

“Where do you swim?”

“The Nat C Nat.”

“The what?”

Kara laughed. “The National City Natatorium. It’s on the west side near my apartment. I usually go pretty early in the morning. It opens at six.”

Lena considered. She usually tried to get into the office by 7:30 or 8:00 at the latest on days that weren’t Fridays, so maybe it could work. And going with a friend sounded less intimidating than going alone, which was most of the reason she hadn’t tried it yet.

“That would be nice.”

“Great! How about Monday morning?”

Lena blinked. She hadn’t meant to commit to immediate action. She thought she’d take a week to consider the idea and work up to it. But as with most things that involved Kara, assent seemed to result in concrete plans. 

Kara had finished most of her first plate, and refilled it with a few of the appetizers. She looked at Lena expectantly.

“Fine. Monday morning it is. How is Lucy settling in?” Lena asked, changing the subject.

Kara smiled. “It’s only her first day, so far so good, I guess? It’s weird to think of her having a job that isn’t the Army.”

“I thought she used to be a bartender.”

“Yeah, but that was in college. She was also in ROTC.”

“Well, I know our legal department is glad for the help. I hope she feels welcome.”

At that moment, Kara’s phone sounded, muffled from inside her bag. The ringtone was a bouncy, upbeat song.

_Oh don't you dare look back_

_Just keep your eyes on me_

_I said you're holding back..._

“Sorry Lena, just a sec. I need to take this,” Kara said as she dug through the bag, finally locating the phone and accepting the call.

“Hey, Alex. No, I’m with Lena.” She took a few steps across the room, turning her back to Lena while she listened and then murmured into the phone. 

Lena concentrated on her salad, trying to give Kara as much privacy as she was able while she spoke in a low voice on what was obviously about a private matter. The call lasted less than two minutes, and Kara returned to the couch quiet and pensive, a crinkle appearing between her eyes.

Lena didn’t want to pry, so after a few moments of silence, she decided to try to break the tension. 

“Your ringtone for your sister is Shut Up And Dance? They always used to play it at a spin class I used to go to in Metropolis. Back when I used to exercise. Before I wore heels.” Lena gave her a wry look.

Kara looked up with a half smile. Lena’s self-deprecating humor seemed to make her mood dissipate slightly. 

“What other kinds of music do you like?”

“These days I mostly listen to music from when I was in high school.”

“Grunge?” Kara asked in a teasing tone.

“I was four when grunge was popular, thank you very much,” Lena said. “Mostly Britpop.”

“What got you into it?”

“My brother,” Lena said. She hoped saying so wouldn’t put a damper on the conversation, but it was true. “He listened to a lot of it, and I gravitated towards some of the bands that became my favorites.”

“Which ones?”

“Lex liked the Clash and the Ramones, but I liked the Cure and the Smiths, mostly.”

“That’s cheerful.”

“I know,” Lena said with a laugh. “I think there was something about the way that most of their songs were either about carrying a torch from afar, or feeling lonely alienated that appealed to me. I was a teenager just beginning to realize that I was gay, and hadn’t told anyone yet, so all of those themes resonated.”

“I get it.”

“But I think my favorite of all of them was Kirsty MacColl. Have you heard of her?” Lena asked.

Kara shook her head. 

“She had more of a bubblegum sound, but the words in her songs were just so sad. Instead of pining like the other bands, there was a real sense in her music of having loved and lost. She seemed to have lived a lot during the life she had.”

“The life she had?” Kara questioned.

“She died relatively young, and when I read about it, it just haunted me. I could never listen to her songs the same way after I found out.”

Kara’s expression encouraged Lena to go on.

“She and her sons were scuba diving in Mexico, and a speedboat was where it shouldn’t have been. She pushed her son out of the way, and the speedboat ran her over. I would have been ten when it happened. It was so tragic, but I couldn’t escape the thought that if someone was going to die during an accident, then dying while saving your kid is something that would maybe make it, not exactly better, but…”

Lena trailed off. Kara had paled and she looked shellshocked.

“Are you okay?” She felt silly for asking, because it was clear that Kara was not.

“Yes. No. I’m fine,” Kara said. She set her plate on the coffee table and wrapped her arms around her torso. She closed her eyes and folded her body over, breathing rapidly.

Lena felt useless. She didn’t know what to do, whether to offer Kara water or to give her the room. She decided to put a tentative hand on Kara’s back, ready to remove it at the slightest flinch.

Kara immediately leaned toward Lena, curling into her side. Lena extended her arm around Kara’s shoulders and held her with gentle, firm pressure. For a full minute, they sat in silence. Kara’s breathing gradually evened out, but she didn’t move for several more moments.

Finally, she sat up. Lena removed her arm and folded her hands in her lap.

“I need to go,” Kara said. 

Lena had no idea what had just triggered Kara’s near-panic attack, but if Kara said that she needed to leave, Lena wasn’t going to argue with her. She stood up.

“Just leave all that, it’s fine, Kara. I’ll take care of it,” she said as Kara started to gather up her plate and the empty takeout containers. 

Kara hesitated, but then assented. She tugged her sweater down over her pants, resettled her glasses and smoothed out her hair. With a deep breath, she seemed to be returning to equilibrium.

“Do you want me to take you back to work? Or to your house?” Lena asked.

“No, I’m fine,” Kara said. “You’re sweet to offer. Really, I’m okay.”

She gave Lena a smile, not as brilliant as usual, but it seemed genuine.

“Are you free tonight?” she asked.

Lena hadn’t been expecting that question. Between Alex’s call and then Kara’s episode, she had expected at most a text message later, if anything.

She thought briefly about the pile of contracts she had set aside to review during the slower evening hours, but then realized that she didn’t exactly _have_ to look at them. It was the legal department’s job, and now that they were more fully staffed, they didn’t need a CEO with control issues and no law degree second-guessing their work. 

“Yes, I’m free.”

“Do you want to come over to my place for dinner?”

Taken by surprise, Lena blinked.

“Okay.”

“Good. I’ll cook. Seven?”

“Seven is fine.”

Kara stepped forward to hug Lena. The hugs Lena had grown used to from Kara were strong and warm. This one was different. Kara seemed to be seeking comfort, rather than offering it. 

Lena circled her arms around Kara. She stroked the back of Kara’s head in a soothing motion. When Kara pulled back, Lena thought her eyes seemed a little shiny behind her glasses.

“I’ll see you tonight,” Kara said. She hoisted her bag over her shoulder and opened Lena’s office door. With a small wave, she headed out.


	10. Stir-Fry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kind of dark so I'm going to post the next one right afterward, because nobody needs unresolved angst right now.
> 
> tw: recollections of tragedy, trauma, depression, and suicidal ideation

Lena knocked on Kara’s door as she stood on the bungalow’s front porch holding a bottle of wine. There were four mailboxes out front and a sign indicating that there were more entrances around back.

“It’s open! Come on in, Lena!” she heard Kara call from inside.

It seemed just like Kara to leave her front door open, trusting that whomever knocked would have good intentions. Trusting that it would be Lena herself, showing up on time and not texting at the last minute to break plans.

Lena let herself in. The door opened to a compact and cozy living room. She noticed some pairs of shoes next to the door piled on top of a waterproof tray, so she removed her shoes and left them on the mat in the entryway.

“I’m in the kitchen! Come on back.” Kara’s voice traveled from a short hallway to the right. Lena walked into the kitchen where she was met by the sight of Kara in track pants and a lightweight hoodie, sleeves pushed up and hair in a ponytail. The ensemble was partially covered by an apron that hung around her neck and was tied in the back. Printed on the apron was a picture of cartoon broccoli wearing a cape, with a caption that said “Super Food.”

Lena was glad she had changed out of her business clothes before coming over.

The kitchen was in the back of the house and, though small, had large windows that looked out onto a backyard. The walls were painted butter yellow and the space felt warm and cheerful as the scent of fresh food filled the air. In front of Kara there was a small island that held a pile of washed vegetables and a couple of cans. Kara finished slicing celery with a truly enormous chef’s knife, brushed the cut pieces into a glass bowl with a practiced motion, and then reached for a carrot.

Lena set the wine on a counter to the side.

“Kara Danvers, this is literally more vegetables than I’ve ever seen within three feet of your person since I met you,” Lena said by way of greeting.

Kara grinned. “Well, I can’t eat takeout for every meal, can I?”

“I kind of figured that you did.”

“Nah. It’s just easier during the workday. I like to cook when I can.”

“Can I help?”

“Sure! It’s kind of close quarters in here, but if you wouldn’t mind opening those cans and draining them that would be great. There’s a can opener next to the sink.” Kara reached for some mushrooms.

Lena located the can opener and made quick work of draining the baby carrots and water chestnuts.

“Do you have a corkscrew?”

“Middle drawer on the right.”

“I hope you like Cabernet,” Lena said as she expertly twisted the corkscrew and eased out the cork. “I didn’t think to check.”

“I do like it,” Kara said. She finished slicing the last of the mushrooms and put the cutting board in the sink, then climbed up onto a stool to retrieve an electric wok from on top of one of the cabinets. Cradling it in one arm, she opened the cabinet as she stepped down.

“Would you mind grabbing those wine glasses?”

Lena stood on tiptoes and pulled down two stemless wine glasses from the middle shelf, pouring two glasses of wine while Kara plugged in the wok.

“Sometimes it spatters, so you may want to stand back,” Kara said as she poured a small amount of oil from a green bottle into the bottom of the wok.

“Noted,” Lena said. She sipped her wine and leaned against the counter to watch Kara cook. Despite her warning, Kara seemed proficient with the wok and there wasn’t much oil spatter. Toward the end of the cooking process, she removed a glass jar from the fridge and scooped some sauce into the wok. It filled the kitchen with an enticing aroma of ginger, garlic, and other aromatics.

Kara switched off the wok and divided up the vegetables between two plates, adding some brown rice from a rice cooker.

Lena picked up the wine glasses. “Do you usually eat here?” Lena asked, indicating the small table with two seats by the window.

Kara laughed. “I’d like to pretend that I’m a civilized person, but usually I eat on the couch. We can sit at the table, though, if you want to.”

“Why mess with a good thing?” Lena said. “Let’s eat on the couch.”

Kara carried the plates into the living room and Lena followed.

“This is really good,” Lena said after taking the first bite. She tasted sweet and savory notes on top of an earthy flavor, all threaded through the crisp hot vegetables. “Is it black bean sauce?”

“Thanks,” Kara said. “Yes, it is.”

“It tastes homemade.”

“Sometimes I buy it in a jar, but I like to make it when I have time.”

“You’re a treasure trove of delicious food experiences,” Lena said. “I mostly eat variations on the same thing every day.”

“Most people do,” Kara replied. “If you have enough meals with me, then you’ll get to see that I have some favorites on repeat.”

They finished their plates of food in companionable silence. Kara set her plate on the coffee table with a contented sigh, so Lena followed suit.

“So about this afternoon,” Kara started.

“You don’t owe me an explanation,” Lena interrupted. “It’s fine, I promise.”

“But I want to tell you,” Kara said. “Not because I think I owe you an explanation. I want to share who I am with you. That’s part of the reason why I asked you over tonight. It’s easier to talk about when I’m at home, Or not in an office, anyway.”

“Okay. I just didn’t want you to feel like you had to.”

Kara gave her an amused smile. “Noted. I guess I should ask you if you want to hear it. It’s not a fun story.”

That Kara was so comfortable telling Lena that she wanted to share with her who she was - _who says that?_ \- and was now checking with Lena that she wanted to hear it? Lena couldn’t ever remember having a friend who exhibited such care and consideration as naturally as Kara did. It took her breath away, honestly. Being offered such a gift of honesty and vulnerability felt humbling.

“I do want to hear it,” Lena said. That felt inadequate, somehow. She tried again. “I want to know you, Kara. The things that make you who you are. Even if they’re not fun things.”

She wasn’t sure if what she said was too formal, too stilted, too much or little of a thousand other things. The look Kara gave her brimming with affection and gratitude suggested it was just right.

Lena folded her hands in her lap and squeezed to try to remind herself to listen. She recognized that while part of her instinct to tell Kara she didn’t owe her an explanation was about making sure the other woman didn’t feel obligated, she knew that some of it came from her own discomfort with intimacy. Whatever had upset Kara was bound to be somewhat emotional in the telling, and she felt a reflexive tendency to avoid getting that deep. But she wanted to be better for Kara, this woman who had befriended her without a second thought and now had offered up her trust so easily.

Kara took a breath.

“So when I was 13, my parents died,” she began. “There was an explosion in our house in the middle of the night, and a fire. It spread really quickly. My bedroom was on the second floor, and my parents were on the main floor. I had been sick, and I’d taken some NyQuil before I went to bed, so I was having a hard time thinking, even though the noise was so loud it woke me up. I felt so groggy.”

Her gaze was far away, as if focused as if on something off in the distance.

“I couldn’t get it together to get out of my bedroom, and there was a lot of smoke. It was getting hotter and hotter, and then all of a sudden my door flew open. It was my parents. The hallway behind them looked like an inferno. I have no idea how they got up the stairs.

“My dad ran to the window and opened it. He kicked out the screen. My mom pretty much dragged me out of bed. They tried to get me to understand that they wanted me to jump, but I was still so out of it. They ended up sort of pushing me out the window.”

Kara paused. She was much calmer than she had been earlier that day, even though she was reciting a tale that was both harrowing and horrifying. Lena noticed that she was making sure to take deep breaths in between sentences. She also noticed that Kara’s hands were flexing into fists and then unclenching.

For once, Lena didn’t overthink her actions. She reached her own hand over, palm up, and gently nudged Kara’s.

Kara looked down, and immediately took the offering, lacing her fingers with Lena’s. The pressure was intense, but not painful.

“I fell into the bushes. They kind of cushioned my fall, but I ended up breaking my arm. I rolled over into the yard because the wall was so hot. My bedroom was over the kitchen, and the kitchen was where it started. And I was trying to get out of the way because I thought my parents would be jumping next, and I wanted to make space.”

Kara paused again.

“They didn’t.”

She closed her eyes. Lena put her other hand on top of their clasped hands.

Kara opened her eyes and continued. “Later, the fire investigator said that opening the window probably gave a fresh burst of oxygen to the fire. It drew the fire into my room, and there was a lot of smoke. He said my parents probably passed out not soon after they threw me outside.

“He also said the front door was open. They probably went outside after the explosion and then realized I was still asleep upstairs. So they came back inside to get me. The fire had already started traveling up the stairs, and it was raging underneath my bedroom. They probably inhaled a lot of smoke on the way.

“Anyway, they saved my life, but they lost theirs.”

Lena untangled her hand from Kara’s and put it around her shoulders. “I’m so sorry, Kara. I can’t even begin to imagine what that was like for you.”

Kara leaned into her touch. “It was terrible. I’ve dealt with it as best I’ve been able, with a lot of help, but sometimes things still catch me off guard.”

Lena understood now why the story about Kirsty MacColl had affected Kara so deeply. She hugged her harder.

“Can I ask you a couple of questions?”

“Yes.”

“What caused the explosion?”

Kara’s mouth twisted in a wry expression. “It was a gas leak. My mom had been smelling something for a couple of days and had reported it to the gas company. They told her it was nothing. She insisted that they send someone out to inspect it, and they did, and said it was sewer gas, like from something wrong in the plumbing. They were wrong.”

“That’s a hell of a mistake to make.”

“Yeah. It turns out they were more than just wrong. They were negligent. Later that year a reporter published a story about Krypton Gas & Electric. It was investor-owned, not publicly owned, you know?”

Lena nodded.

“Apparently the owners had been cutting corners and had skimped on the maintenance in our area. They were planning to sell, they had a buyer, and they needed to make the books look better to get the price they wanted. We lived a few miles outside Krypton, kinda rural. The problem was with some gas lines underneath the house that KG&E was responsible for. They weren’t up to code. All the houses in our area had the same problem, and the company knew about it, but fixing it would have meant doing it for everyone out where we lived. The reporter got ahold of some internal memos. The company covered it up and was going to claim ignorance until after the sale was final so they didn’t have to pay for it.”

Kara wiped at a couple of tears that escaped from the corners of her eyes. “I was so devastated when I read that article. My parents died because of greed, you know? But in a way, it’s also what inspired me to go into journalism. If it wasn’t for that reporter and all the digging she did, no one would ever have known that was why it happened.”

Lena exhaled slowly and squeezed Kara’s shoulder, then released her.

“Thank you for sharing that with me.” What she really meant was _thank you for trusting me with that,_ but she couldn’t figure out how to convey that succinctly.

Kara bumped her shoulder gently. “Thanks for listening.”

A thought occurred to Lena. “What about Alex? Was she not home when it happened?”

Kara looked confused, and then her face cleared. “Oh. Alex is my adoptive sister. I forget that not everybody knows that.”

Lena felt surprised, but tried not to let it show. Kara was adopted too?

“When did you get adopted?”

“My parents made a will after I was born. They were both only children, so they named their best friends from college as my guardians in case of their deaths. They kind of drifted apart after college, just busy with their lives and stuff. I think the Danvers were pretty shocked when they got a call from my parents’ lawyer.”

“That must have been so hard, Kara.”

The blonde nodded. “It was, but the Danvers were - are - also really good people. They took me in and treated me like their own daughter, but they were also really good at recognizing my trauma and giving me space. They put me into therapy right away, and even though I was so angry, and silent, and withdrawn, it ended up being the best thing. Eventually.”

“Was Alex glad to have a sister?”

Kara laughed at the question. “Not right away. I hated her, and she hated me.”

Lena blinked, surprised.

“I can’t blame her. She had a nice life, only child, apple of her parents’ eyes, and then I got dumped right in the middle of that and took up all the attention. Not that I wanted it, but still. We didn’t really speak at all for the first three months that I lived there.”

Lena couldn’t imagine. When she had been adopted by the Luthors, Lex had been instantly entranced by his new little sister. She had been four, and he had been nine, but despite their age difference, he had been the most welcoming member of the Luthor family. Lex read books to her, taught her how to play chess, and even spent endless hours playing dolls with her. She wondered whether it would have been better or worse if Lionel and Lillian had been warm and nurturing and Lex aloof, and then decided that probably wasn’t the kind of equivalency that could ever be measured.

“How did it get better?”

“One day after my arm had healed, Alex walked into my room. She didn’t say anything, but she threw a pair of running shoes at me.”

“She threw shoes at you?” Lena could certainly picture Alex Danvers throwing shoes at someone, but not at a grief-stricken teenager.

“Not like at my head,” Kara clarified with a grin. “Like, at my feet. She made me put them on and then took me out running with her.”

“She must really have had it in for you,” Lena said with a dry look. “Running is the worst kind of torture.”

“I thought so at the time,” Kara said. “But I kept at it, at first because Alex made me. Then I got to like it.”

“So you bonded over running?”

“Eventually,” Kara said. “At first, we just ran in silence, but that got old. We started talking. I had started talking to my therapist about my parents, but I didn’t really have anyone to talk to about all the other stuff I was going through. It turned out that Alex was the perfect person to talk to about thinking I was gay, because she was too.”

Lena let out an unexpected laugh.

“That must have been nice for both of you.”

“It was,” Kara said, her eyes soft with fondness. “Alex was having a hard time with it. She was worried about what her parents would think, what her friends would think, what it meant about her preconceived notions of the world. It helped me to listen to her - like, it helped me get out of my own head, you know?”

Lena nodded. Sometimes the best way to deal with your problems was to listen to somebody else’s.

“Things started going better with my therapist after I started running. Exercise helped me then, and it still does.”

Lena thought that explained a lot about why Kara always seemed to be in motion.

“Those things were both important, but I think it was Alex who really ended up making the difference. I think finding out that Alex was someone I could depend on, and when I realized that she actually cared about me and considered me her sister, that was a lifeline.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, like, for a long time after my parents died…” Kara trailed off.

Lena gave her what she hoped was a supportive and encouraging look.

“I wished I had died with them,” Kara finally finished. “I was so mad at them for saving me. I was mad at the Danvers for making me come live with them. I spent a long time wishing I was dead, and I can’t even really explain what that was like.”

Lena’s heart ached for Kara and the memory of her teenage self.

“Alex saved me,” Kara said. “I don’t think I would be here without her.”

“I’m so glad you had her,” Lena said.

“Me too.”

They sat in silence for a brief moment until Lena asked another question, partly in an effort to break the heaviness of the moment but also because she was curious, “So why is your ringtone for her Shut Up and Dance?”

Kara snorted, seeming glad for the change in subject. “That was from a couple of years ago, after my girlfriend broke up with me. I was super bummed out. I mean, I was keeping it together, but just down in the dumps. After three days of me dodging her calls and texts, Alex showed up at my apartment and threw some sneakers at me.”

“Does she always use shoes when staging an intervention?” Lena laughed.

“Apparently. She took me to a club and made me dance with her all night. It was a Thursday, and the place wasn’t all that crowded, which I thought would be weird but it actually ended up being really fun. It was like we had the place to ourselves, we didn’t have to worry about trying to look cool or deal with anyone hitting on us. It got me out of my head. They played that song that night and I thought it was pretty spot on.”

“How long had you dated the girl who broke up with you?”

“Not too long,” Kara said. “Six months, maybe. I mean, long enough that I knew it wasn’t going to work out between us for the long term.”

“Oh? Then why were you so down about it?”

“It was...” Kara trailed off, but then decided to keep talking. “I’ve dated a few people in my life, but none of my relationships have ever really worked out.”

“What was it about this situation that upset you so much, then?”

“Well, I liked her,” Kara said. “So I was sad that it was over. But even though I knew I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life with her, I had liked her more than anyone I had ever dated, and, I don’t know. It sounds stupid to say it out loud.”

Lena took Kara’s hand again. “You don’t have to tell me. But I want to let you know that you can tell me. And I won’t think you’re stupid.”

Kara leaned her head back on the couch and squeezed Lena’s hand. “I just, I was worried that maybe I was never going to find someone. Someone to love, and who would love me back for who I am. I was afraid that there was something wrong with me. Like maybe I’m not cut out for relationships. Or that I was unlovable.”

Lena couldn’t believe her ears. Kara thought this about herself?

“Kara, I know better than most people that what other people say doesn’t always change how you feel inside. But please, please believe me when I say that there is nothing wrong with you and you’re not unlovable.”

Kara sighed, and gave Lena a smile. “I know. It was a bad moment and I was really down. I get scared sometimes, though. I’d like to have a family someday, and I know I’m young and there’s lots of time, but so far my track record isn’t great.”

“Maybe you just haven’t met the right person yet,” Lena said. She winced when she realized how it sounded.

“Maybe,” Kara said. The silence was contemplative and Lena wondered if she was imagining the unspoken addition _or maybe I already have._ She sternly reminded herself to stay in the moment and participate in the conversation she was having, not the hypothetical one based on possibilities that existed in the conversation in her head.

“I had a bad breakup a little over a year ago,” Lena said.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Maybe a little. Her name was Veronica Sinclair, and we dated when I lived in Metropolis. Our lives fit together pretty easily. She was a venture capitalist, and we ran in the same circles, more or less.”

“Did you love her?”

Lena considered that question. “I think I thought I did. Or maybe I wanted to. It’s possible that it could have turned into that if she had been, well, I don’t know. I was going to say if she had been honest with me, but I think what I meant was if she had been a different person with different motivations.”

Kara stayed silent, her eyes encouraging Lena to continue.

“It turned out that she was dating me mainly to get close to my brother. Not to date him,” she clarified, seeing Kara’s eyebrows raise in surprise. “But for business. She was angling for a seat on the board of directors of Luthor Corp. I think she liked me fine, but she didn’t love me. And the worst part was, when I confronted her with my suspicions, she just confirmed it. Like she didn’t even care. It was very hard for me. And I guess it was kind of like your situation, in a way. I was upset about the breakup, but I was also upset that she had used me. I did spend some time wondering if I would ever meet someone who wasn’t interested in me for what I could do for them, but for who I was.”

Lena paused, contemplating the irony of saying these things to the one person she had met who truly didn’t seem to have any agenda. Kara had actively protested when Lena tried to be overgenerous with her. Kara had objected to Cat Grant asking her to leverage their personal connection for an article. Kara hadn’t pushed when Lena asked her to wait, when Lena had been pretty sure she was about to make a confession of feelings and attraction.

“What happened to her business agenda?” Kara asked, startling Lena out of her reverie.

“When Lex found out, he cut off the negotiations with her,” Lena said. “I didn’t ask him to, but he’s always been like that. Protective of me.”

Lena cleared her throat, not sure if she should continue.

“Do you want to talk about him?” Kara asked. “It’s okay if you do.”

Lena exhaled. “I barely know what to say about him, or where to start. There’s just so much.”

“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. I just mean that if you want to talk about him, he doesn’t have to be a taboo subject.”

Lena looked at Kara.

“My childhood wasn’t always a happy one, and when I was a teenager, everything felt a little more fraught,” she began. “I think knowing that I was a lesbian had a fair amount to do with it. There was a lot of pressure in my family to be perfect. Good enough wasn’t really a thing. And I knew that being gay was just another way that I was different, and wouldn’t measure up. Things got really dark for me for a while. I mean, beyond the usual teen angst.”

Lena didn’t want to say the word _suicidal._ She hadn’t ever had a plan to do it, for one thing. But she had spent many dark nights wishing that she didn’t exist, and contemplating it as an escape. It wasn’t a time she was eager to revisit in detail with Kara, so she hoped her implication was clear.

“Lex was the only one who noticed what was going on. And well, I think my parents cared in some abstract way, but Lex was really the only one who gave a damn what happened to me. He was the only one in my family who would have cared if I wasn’t there.”

Lena paused. This time, it was Kara reaching for her hand to give it a comforting squeeze. She smiled tremulously.

“He knew something was wrong, and I could tell he didn’t know what it was or how to help, but one day he just came into my room and made me talk to him. He could tell that I was getting further and further away, I guess. He wouldn’t leave until I told him what was going on. That day I thought I was confessing my deepest, darkest secret to him. I told him that I was gay, and that I was in a bad place because of what I thought would happen because of it.”

Lena cleared her throat as tears threatened to spring into her eyes.

“Lex just looked so relieved when I finally told him. I could tell that he was thinking, is _that all?_ And he took me by the shoulders and told me that it was okay. That I was okay. That I was normal. And that he would stand beside me and help me. He wouldn’t let Lionel and Lillian treat me differently, or send me away. I knew he could make that happen, because he was definitely their favored child, and they were already deferring to him in certain areas when he would tell them how it was going to be.

“I guess in some ways it was like you and Alex,” Lena said, hoping that Kara wouldn’t be offended by her comparing her criminal brother with Kara’s beloved sister. “He didn’t make me go running, but he did make me leave my room and participate in life. He held my hand when I told my parents. He made it clear that he supported me and that there would be no room for retribution or punishment. And it was like that with everything from then on. He was my biggest fan, and my biggest supporter. I never went more than a few days without talking to him,” she said.

She paused. “Until now, I guess.”

Lena stopped talking as reality hit her in the face like a wave. She hadn’t spoken to anyone about the Lex that she had loved, her best friend, since his arrest. No one wanted to hear anything good about him, and she had spent a fair amount of time wondering if his actions cancelled out everything good about him.

But the truth was, she missed her brother. Despite his heinous acts, the deaths for which he was responsible, she missed him even now. In her life, she had never felt alone ever since Lex had laid eyes on her and had been so thrilled to meet her. In the last eight months she’d not only had to learn how to run a company, she also had to learn how to live on her own without the steadfast support of someone who had been a constant in her life since the age of four.

The enormity of what she had lost confronted her. She had shoved it down and compartmentalized it daily until she was numb, but talking to Kara about it seemed to unlock every box in her mind, and it unleashed a flood of feelings that she usually kept under lock and key.

Lena started to breathe faster, and some corner of her brain knew what was about to happen. Knowing didn’t help, though she tried to use logic to force her rapidly increasing heartbeat to slow. She felt tightness in her chest. A sob escaped her mouth, and she tried mightily to lock it inside, but the floodgates were open. She doubled over and began to gasp and sob as if she hadn’t cried in months, which she hadn’t.

All of a sudden Lena felt the dinner that Kara had cooked starting to revolt in her stomach. She clenched her jaw and managed to say “Where’s the bathroom?”

Kara pointed toward a door on the left of the living room. Lena bolted from the couch and ran toward the door. It led into a bedroom, but Lena was beyond caring when she saw the ensuite bathroom off to the side, and sprinted in.

She knelt in front of the toilet and vomited. She felt gentle hands on her shoulders that gathered up her hair and pulled it back from her face. A few motions later, it stayed back and she realized dimly that it was contained in a hair tie that held at the nape of her neck.

Lena couldn’t stop crying, and every gasp for air resulted in a sob that caused her to dry heave. Though her stomach was empty, convulsions continued to rip through her body.

Kara’s hands returned to her shoulders, not moving, just making gentle contact as Lena continued to gasp and choke. She felt Kara shifting around behind her, and then Kara’s arms circled her waist, still gentle, as she fitted the front of her torso to Lena’s back.

“You’re safe here,” Kara said into Lena’s hair, her chin just slightly above Lena’s shoulder. Her voice was low and soothing. “It’s okay to cry. Can you try to breathe with me? I’m going to count. One...two…”

Lena’s gasps slowly subsided as she tried to match her breaths to Kara’s slow, deep pace. Her heart rate slowed, and though she continued to weep, it seemed that the panic attack was going to ease up without becoming worse.

“That’s good,” Kara said encouragingly. “Here, let me get you some water.”

Kara stood up and Lena leaned back, still sitting on the floor, and wrapped her arms around herself. She heard Kara rummaging in a cabinet and then the sound of water running.

“Here,” Kara said, kneeling on the floor again behind Lena. “Can you turn around?”

Lena complied, and Kara held a washcloth in her hand and gently proffered it.

Lena accepted the washcloth and wiped it around the edges of her mouth. Kara reached behind her and Lena heard the sound of the toilet flushing.

“Do you think you can stand?” Lena nodded, and Kara stood up, offering her hands and gently pulled Lena up.

“If you want to swish your mouth out,” Kara said, handing her a cup of water.

Lena did, and spat into the sink.

“God, Kara, I’m so sorry,” she began, not making eye contact. “I should go.”

“Why don’t you come back to the living room and sit for a bit?” Kara said.

“But I ruined our evening.”

“You did no such thing,” Kara said, putting an arm around Lena’s waist and leading her back through her bedroom to the living room. She sat on the couch, encouraging Lena to join her.

Kara opened her arms, and Lena suddenly felt bone tired. It wasn’t unusual after a panic attack. The thought of trying to drive home right now, even with her Tesla Autopilot handling most of the driving decisions, felt too overwhelming.

She sat down next to Kara, tucking her legs underneath her as she leaned on the other woman’s shoulder. Kara’s strong right arm circled her, and she took Lena’s hand with her left hand.

Lena felt like weeping again. What had she done to deserve such a kind friend? Nothing, as far as she was concerned. She fought to keep her eyes open even as she wished she could give in and close them.

Luckily for her, Kara seemed to understand. She took a throw pillow from the couch and set it in her lap.

“Here, lie down for a minute. Rest your eyes.”

A corner of Lena’s mind was aghast at the suggestion. Lena Luthor wasn’t a person who curled up on someone else’s lap to sleep. But she supposed she wasn’t a person who had panic attacks and threw up at other people’s apartments, either.

Or maybe the empirical evidence suggested she was both.

Tired of fighting with herself, she did as Kara said, turning over so she was facing away from the other woman’s torso. Kara removed the hair band from the nape of Lena’s neck and began to gently run her fingers through Lena’s hair, impossibly slow, gently working out stray tangles.

  
Lena found it incredibly soothing, and felt her mind begin to drift. Her breathing evened out and deepened, and for all that it felt inevitable, she couldn’t have pinpointed the moment that she fell asleep.

****

Lena opened her eyes, disoriented. Her neck felt stiff, and she had a terrible, stale taste in her mouth. She blinked in the dim room, turning over to try to get her bearings.

Above her she saw Kara Danvers with her head lolling on the back of the couch, her glasses having slipped slightly down her nose as she slept. Kara looked impossibly young asleep, even from Lena’s unusual perspective.

She sat up slowly, stretching her arms. The motion woke Kara.

“Lena?” she said fuzzily.

“We fell asleep,” Lena said. She wondered why, at moments where things were patently obvious, that people felt the need to say so. All part of the social contract, perhaps.

“What time is it?” Kara asked. She squinted and resettled her glasses on the bridge of her nose, and withdrew her phone from her pocket.

Lena yawned, unable to stop herself. She glanced over at Kara’s phone, which said 10:37. They had been asleep for a little under two hours.

“How are you?” Kara asked her. She sat up straight and twisted her torso until her lower back emitted a slight pop.

“I feel better,” Lena said. It was true. The nap had reset her psyche so that her chest no longer felt tight, her breathing was normal, and her stomach was mostly settled.

“I’m glad,” Kara said. She scrubbed at her eyes, removing her glasses.

Lena took a breath and stood up. “I’m going to go,” she said.

“Okay,” Kara said. “You’re fine to drive, right?”

“Yes, I’ll be fine,” Lena replied. “I’ll text you when I get home, if you want.” Part of her felt ridiculous saying so, but if she knew Kara Danvers at all, she knew that was probably one of her next questions.

“I’d appreciate that,” Kara said with a look that conveyed she knew that Lena was humoring her.

Lena hesitated before going over to get her shoes. Their moment of shared intimacy had slowly ebbed away, being replaced by a feeling of awkwardness, at least on her part. Kara had been kind enough to invite her over, cook her dinner, and share with her one of the most personal, formative moments of her life. And how had Lena repaid her? By talking about how she missed her criminal brother who was at least still alive, by having a panic attack and by throwing up in her bathroom.

Lena bit her lip as she pulled on her shoes.

Kara stood up. “I can practically hear you thinking. Whatever it is, no. Okay?” Without waiting for an answer, she crossed the room and enveloped Lena in a hug.

Lena hesitated, but she was powerless to resist a Kara Danvers hug. She returned it, but still couldn’t help feeling self-conscious.

  
Kara released her and Lena gave her an attempt at a smile. She opened the door and said as she left, “I”ll text you.”

****

 _Home safe._ Lena pressed send on the text, and then put her phone on the kitchen counter face down, not waiting for a reply.

She wanted to brush her teeth and sleep for a thousand years.


	11. Aftermath Croissant

When Lena woke up Saturday morning and the clock on her phone said 7:18am, she felt truly surprised and a little groggy. Apparently her body had demanded more than the usual amount of rest after such a draining emotional experience.

A hot shower and a cup of strong black coffee later, she was starting to feel more like her usual self. Except when she allowed herself to remember the night before. It wasn’t that she felt mortified, exactly - that was too strong a word. Kara had been so understanding and kind that she didn’t feel like her panic attack was an event that she needed to feel embarrassed about. After all, Kara had almost had one herself earlier that day in her office.

But she did feel deeply uncomfortable with having shown so much of her raw, vulnerable side to Kara. She also felt discomfort around her loss of control. Her logical brain knew that panic attacks weren’t something she could prevent by force of will, but something - habit, or maybe her upbringing - caused her to reflexively view it as a weakness anyway.

She sighed as she sat on the balcony with her second cup of coffee, viewing the city far down below. It was just about 8:00, and on a Saturday, the city was slower to wake up. Lena saw a few cars on the streets, and some early-rising pedestrians or joggers, but much less of the hustle and bustle of the weekdays. Sometimes the ability to see visually just how many people lived in the city, going about their lives, dealing with challenges, and getting through the day helped her put her own worries in perspective. 

It wasn’t working very well this morning, though.

Her mind kept coming back around to Kara. Would things change between them? Would Kara behave differently around her, afraid of setting her off again? Could Lena ever truly relax, knowing that if she let down her carefully constructed walls for even a second, that she might collapse?

The buzzing of her phone drew her attention. It was ringing. 

It was Kara.

Lena felt startled. What could be so important that Kara would phone her on Saturday morning? Was she in trouble?

“Hello?” she answered.

“Hi, Lena!” Kara’s voice came through the phone, cheerful, along with some background noise of traffic. “Did I wake you up?”

“No, I was awake.”

“Okay, great! Are you doing anything right now? Do you want to go grab a quick breakfast with me?”

If this had been a text message exchange, Lena would have taken too much time to think over her response and talk herself out of it. As it was, Lena’s previous worries didn’t have much chance to reassert themselves in the face of Kara Danvers’ gregariousness. 

Also, she was hungry, having lost her dinner the night before. She knew her cupboard was bare, and hadn’t yet figured out how she was going to go about procuring breakfast.

“Where should I meet you?” Lena couldn’t quite keep the smile out of her voice.

“Actually, I’m downstairs in front of your building. There’s a place we can walk to that has good reviews.”

Kara was downstairs? Lena’s previous friendships hadn’t included many spontaneous stop-bys, but she knew by now that Kara did things her own way.

“I’ll be right down.”

Lena pulled on a pair of sneakers and quickly looked at her hair in the mirror. She hadn’t bothered to dry it or style it after her shower, and she wasn’t wearing makeup either. But she didn’t want to keep Kara waiting, so she fluffed her hair with her fingers and decided it would have to do.

Kara was leaning against the bike rack as Lena walked out the front door of her building. She was dressed in her softball uniform and wore a backpack out of which the top of a bat protruded. Her bike, Jack’s prototype, was locked to the rack, and the helmet was clipped to the outside of her backpack.

She smiled hugely when she saw Lena.

“Hi!” she said, and hugged Lena. Lena was at least prepared for that, since a hug as a greeting was part of who Kara was.

“Good morning.” Lena returned the hug.

“This place is just a couple blocks away, and it’s open early on weekends,” Kara said, leading the way.

The Basic Kneads pastry shop wasn’t one that Lena was familiar with, even though it was close to her apartment. The warm smell of baking bread and rich coffee burst out of the front door as Kara held it open for Lena.

“The food blogger for the Trib said the blueberry cream cheese croissants are to die for,” Kara said as they looked over the menu. “Want to try one? This is on me.”

Lena’s stomach let out a growl at the mention. “Sure.”

“Coffee?”

“Please. Black. I’ll get us a table.”

The cafe had limited seating, but it wasn’t crowded, and Lena chose a two-person table near the window.

Kara brought over their food, two steaming cups and a cup of something green with two straws. Lena’s coffee was black, while Kara’s appeared to be a latte.

“What’s that?” Lena asked, indicating the green cup.

“Kale smoothie,” Kara said. “It looked like something you’d appreciate. I thought we could share it.”

Lena was touched by Kara’s thoughtfulness. She took a sip. 

“Mango and pineapple,” she said. “It’s very good.”

Kara tried some also. “It’s not bad. You can barely taste the kale.” She turned her attention to the croissant.

Lena filed away the information that Kara apparently didn’t like kale but had purchased a kale-containing beverage for them to share. 

The first bite of the croissant was almost painfully good, and Lena had to restrain herself from cramming the rest of it into her mouth. 

“Oh my god. This might be the best pastry I’ve ever had,” she said. 

Kara nodded her assent, her own mouth full, and then swallowed. “Padma doesn’t go wrong with her food recommendations. The webmaster for the Trib used to tease me that I was artificially driving up the hit counts on her posts because I looked at her articles so much.”

Lena sipped her coffee.

“Are you on your way to a softball game?” she asked.

“What gave it away?” Kara’s dimples showed when she smiled. “Yes, today we have the dreaded morning slot against the Edge Cases.”

“Is that Morgan Edge’s company?”

“It’s Edge Global Development, yeah. Do you know him?”

“A little bit.” 

Lena didn’t say that she knew him because his company had renovated a condemned building in National City and had knowingly neglected to replace some aging pipes. Testing had revealed corrosion and lead contamination, and his company had been fined. L-Corp’s lead sequestration technology had been deployed in the remediation, and they had developed monitors for the residential apartments in the building to help the tenants confirm that their drinking water was safe.

“Ms. Grant hates him,” Kara confided. “She says he’s a misogynist, among other things.”

Lena nodded. “That’s accurate.” A thought occurred to her. “This isn’t exactly on your way to the softball field.”

“It’s not, but I wanted to see you after last night,” Kara said.

Lena shifted in her seat. She wanted to protest that she was fine, that Kara didn’t need to check up on her. She would have liked to pretend that last night never happened, at least this morning, but Kara was making that difficult.

Kara seemed to pick up on Lena’s discomfort.

“When I had a rough night, lots of times I felt some kind of way afterward,” she said. 

“That’s not very specific, for someone who writes words for a living.” Lena heard herself deflecting, and wished she didn’t instinctively retreat into defensiveness when she was feeling exposed.

Kara let that pass. “Left to my own devices, I might have holed up for a while. Alex never let me for long, though. I just wanted to tell you that it’s okay, Lena. If you’re feeling uncomfortable right now, it’s okay. I get it. I’m your friend, and I’ll be here for you.

“And hey, if nothing I just said resonates, then I get to have the pleasure of your company this morning. So either way, it’s all good.”

Lena searched Kara’s face. How was it possible that someone this patient and understanding was interested in being her friend?

“I guess you’re not wrong,” Lena said. “I was feeling a little uncomfortable this morning about it all.”

Kara maintained eye contact, her body language indicating that she was listening.

“I haven’t really talked to anyone about Lex since he was arrested,” Lena continued. “I mean, in some ways it seems like I’ve talked about nothing else, of course. But I haven’t talked to anyone about who he used to be. Or what he means to me.” 

Kara nodded.

“It was a lot,” Lena said. “I’m not used to losing control like that. It made me a little worried about opening that particular door. I’m not sure if I have the time or energy to deal with the consequences right now.”

“I understand.”

Lena thought it was possible that Kara really did understand. After what Kara had shared last night about her parents, in some ways Lena thought she might be one of the best positioned people to understand what she was going through. She wasn’t equating a teenager’s loss of her parents with her brother’s actions, but the fact was that both she and Kara had experienced a sudden and total loss of the core people in their lives who had always been constant.

“What was it like for you?” Lena asked. “When Alex wouldn’t let you hole up.”

Kara looked thoughtful. “I got mad at her sometimes. I didn’t want someone to pull me out of my head. It would have been easy for her to ignore me. I didn’t understand why she didn’t just leave me alone. It took me some time to realize that a lot of the reason I felt that way was because of me, not because of her.”

“How do you mean?”

“My parents sacrificed themselves to save me. If it wasn’t for me, then they wouldn’t have died. I know logically that it wasn’t my fault, but I also struggled a lot knowing that they died because of me. I had a hard time believing afterward that I deserved to live.”

“You said you got mad at Alex for dragging you out of your head,” Lena said. “Aren’t you worried I’m going to get mad at you?”

Kara gave her a serious look. “If you’re feeling anything like I used to feel after one of my bad nights, then I would rather you be mad at me than withdraw from me. And that’s assuming that those are the only two choices.” 

As Lena returned the look, she felt something click into place in her chest. She had been wishing that she could just relax, let go, and trust that Kara was her friend without the constant narrative in her head. She had been constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Whatever that shoe might be, she couldn’t pinpoint it - whether Kara had some hidden agenda, or if she finally decided that being friends with Lena and her walls was too much work, or even just plain old eventual loss of interest.

But she realized now that the third choice that Kara was referring to, or any choice beyond the two she had outlined of anger or withdrawal, was already there.

She trusted Kara.

Finally realizing that felt like a balm. She didn’t need to question Kara’s motives or even her desire to be friends. Lena realized that she truly believed Kara liked her for who she was, not for what Lena could do for her. She believed that Kara cared about her.

The realization was so soothing and also so shocking, Lena had to take a moment to collect herself. She had been on her guard for such a long time that distrust and suspicion felt like normal default positions. And yet, in spite of that, here was a person who was safe, who had her best interests at heart, and who wouldn’t let her down. This was someone she could confide in.

“I sometimes wonder if I deserve to be in the position I’m in,” Lena said. “Lex did a lot of terrible things. I didn’t do those things, but I worked with him. For him. He’s my brother, one of the people I am - or was - closest to in the world. How could I not have known?”

She hesitated, and then added, “And maybe this is the worst part. I could tell that something was off with him. I was wrapped up in the drama of my relationship with Veronica, and then our breakup. I didn’t really pursue it.”

Kara’s look and tone were sympathetic. “You probably don’t need me to tell you this, but it wasn’t your fault.”

Lena fought off her urge to protest and castigate herself. “I know you’re right. But maybe I needed to hear it.”

The silence that descended was comfortable as they turned their attention to the last of their pastries and coffee, with Lena finishing most of the rest of the smoothie. She was pleasantly surprised that talking to Kara about Lex hadn’t triggered a repeat of her panic attack from last night. It was as if after talking about it the first time, the huge weight of never having talked about him before with anyone had been lifted.

“What time is your game?”

“9:30,” Kara replied. She glanced at the clock. “Shoot, I’d better get going soon.”

Lena looked at the clock too. It was a little after 9, and she knew the field was a couple of miles away.

“I hope I haven’t made you late,” she said. 

“Nah. Besides, I have a fast bike.” Kara grinned as she stood up and gathered up their trash and coffee mugs.

“Oh, the production-ready version of your bike is going to be a little lighter. We’ve finally found a way to make the frame weigh less. I can make sure you get one of the first, if you want.” 

“That’s nice of you,” Kara said. “But I prefer this one.”

“You haven’t even seen the final version,” Lena laughed.

“I know,” Kara said. “But this one was a gift from you.” She deposited their mugs in the plastic tub by the trash can.

A warm feeling overtook Lena as they walked the couple of blocks back to her apartment. When they arrived at the bike rack, she surprised Kara by being the one to initiate a hug.

“Thank you for breakfast,” Lena said. 

Kara returned the hug. “You’re welcome. Thanks for having breakfast with me.”

“And thank you also for coming here and dragging me out. You’re right, you know. I probably would have avoided you for a few days.”

“That’s what friends are for,” Kara said, releasing Lena and fastening her helmet. 

“Good luck at the game,” Lena said. “Kick their asses.”

Lena waved as Kara pedaled away. She wondered what to do with the rest of her day. For once, she didn’t feel like spending a portion of her weekend working. She pulled out her phone and tapped out a message to Sam, inquiring if she had plans and offering to join her at Ruby’s soccer game, if she was playing. 

****

After a pleasant afternoon watching Ruby play soccer and a late lunch or early dinner with her and Sam - Lena still wasn’t sure which it had been - she was winding up her night with a glass of Malbec and a journal article from _Engineering Quarterly_ when her phone buzzed.

 **Kara D (8:34pm):** we won the game! mercy ruled them

 **Lena L (8:35pm):** Well done. I’ll make sure to rub it in Morgan Edge’s face the next time I’m unfortunate enough to see him.

 **Kara D (8:35pm):** ha! just don’t bring my name into it. do you want to meet in front of the nat city nat tomorrow at 6? i can show you the where the locker room is.

 **Lena L (8:36pm):** Oh, right. We’re going swimming. Tomorrow morning. That is a thing that I agreed to do.

 **Kara D (8:36pm):** you didn’t forget, did you? :D

 **Lena L (8:37pm):** Maybe it was selective memory loss. But I’ll be there.

 **Kara D (8:37pm):** awesome. the shower facilities are pretty good, if you want to go right to work after. they have hair dryers but not toiletries jfyi

 **Lena L (8:37pm):** All right. Looking forward to it.

 **Lena L (8:37pm):** (Kind of.)

 **Kara D (8:38pm):** haha. see you then! have a good night. :)

 **Lena L (8:38pm):** You too. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy.


	12. Stay In Your Lane

Lena parked her car on the street in front of the National City Natatorium, which was all but deserted at this time of the morning. The clock on her Tesla’s dashboard read 6:03am. 

Kara was leaning against the doorway holding a duffel bag. 

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Lena said as she walked up.

“You’re hardly late,” Kara said. “They haven’t opened the doors yet anyway.”

As she said that, a man in shorts and a T-shirt with a ring of keys approached the doors from the inside and unlocked them. 

“Morning, Kara,” he said as they entered.

“Hi Jim!” Kara said cheerfully. “This is my friend Lena.”

Jim nodded at Lena. “Ma’am.”

“It’s over this way,” Kara said, leading the way toward the front desk. It was staffed by an attendant who was nursing a very large cup of coffee. 

“You can buy a one-time pass, or a book of 10, or an annual membership,” she continued.

“I think I’ll go with a one-time pass to start,” Lena said. She handed over her credit card to the attendant, who rang up her purchase. He handed it back to her and smothered a yawn.

Lena followed Kara to the women’s locker room, which was also empty. 

“Are you always the first one here?” Lena asked. 

“Usually,” Kara said. “But people trickle in pretty steadily and it gets kind of busy around 7:00 am. I like to avoid the rush. Did you bring a swim cap?”

Lena didn’t even own a swim cap, and said as much.

“I brought an extra for you, if you want to borrow it,” Kara said, removing a pink plastic cap from her bag and handing it to Lena.

“Is it required?”

“No, it’s just that the chlorine can be hard on hair. It can strip some of the oils from it, and your hair is so pretty, that would be a shame.”

Kara didn’t look at Lena when she said that, and her voice was muffled as she was taking off her sweatshirt. Lena was glad, because she felt a blush rising on her cheeks. Kara hadn’t said it in a tone that indicated anything other than face value, but still. 

Kara thought Lena’s hair was _pretty._

In the time Lena had known Kara, she had always been cognizant that the other woman was objectively attractive. Her appearance and demeanor were magnetic, and her easy athleticism and fluid way of moving drew the eye. Despite her awareness of Kara’s good looks, the constant cycle of thoughts in Lena’s head about the pressures she was under, combined with her natural caution around new people had prevented her from noticing Kara on a more physical level. 

But something had shifted for Lena since Friday night. It was as if opening up to Kara and allowing herself to be vulnerable had also shattered some invisible barrier that had been keeping at bay her ability to viscerally appreciate Kara. Saturday morning might have had even more to do with it, she thought. That was when she had finally felt like it was safe to trust Kara.

And now Lena was in a locker room with her. Kara was taking off her sweatshirt and track pants, and Lena couldn’t tear her eyes away. Kara’s swimsuit was a racing tank and was modest by any standard, but confronted with her leanly muscled frame and so much skin on display, Lena found herself unsure what to do with her hands.

Kara seemed blissfully unaware of Lena’s sudden inability to speak as she twisted her hair into a knot and pulled her own swim cap over her head.

“Anyway, you don’t have to wear it if you don’t want to, but if you decide to make the pool a regular thing, you’ll probably want one.”

“No, thank you. I’d love to borrow it,” Lena said. Her consternation intensified as she realized that Kara had come to the pool wearing her swimsuit, but Lena herself had packed her suit in her bag. Were there changing rooms? Was she supposed to take off her clothes in front of Kara?

Lena wished she had thought this through. 

“I’m going out to stretch a bit first. I’ll meet you by the pool. It’s just through that door,” Kara said, pointing to a door at the opposite side of the room.

Lena felt absurdly relieved as she nodded. She wasn’t sure if stretching was actually a thing that swimmers did regularly before their workouts, or if Kara had picked up on her internal conflict, but either way, she was grateful. She sternly told herself not to visualize Kara stretching as she quickly removed her clothes and donned her swimsuit.

The swim cap gave her a little more trouble, but she managed to get most of her hair tucked underneath it. She spared herself a glance in the mirror and snorted at her appearance. She thought she looked like a pencil eraser. The thought made her mirthful and effectively dampened the fluttery feelings in her stomach.

The chemical smell of chlorine washed over her as she walked through the door into the pool area. Lena thought she could make out Kara’s individual abdominal muscles through the material of her suit as she stretched.

She wrenched her eyes away from Kara’s body.

“All set?” Kara asked.

“Yes,” Lena said. “I’m not sure I put the cap on in the most efficient way, but it’s on, at least.”

Kara glanced over. “You did a good job. Here, let me tuck in a couple of these pieces of hair.”

Lena felt electricity tingle through her body as Kara’s fingers touched the back of her neck, sweeping up the hair and tucking it under the edge of the swim cap with a practiced motion. 

“There you go,” Kara said. 

“Thanks.”

“This roped-off area is where people do pool running,” Kara said as they walked around the edge of the pool. “There’s a water aerobics class at 8:00, but you and the others will have the space mostly to yourself for a bit.”

“Are there a lot of people who do pool running?”

“A fair amount, though they usually start arriving around 6:30,” Kara said. “There aren’t many people who like to get here right at the crack of dawn.”

Lena thought that she would be happy if the shallow end of the pool stayed empty the whole time. Her physical therapist had given her a list of exercises to start with that she had committed to memory. Her biggest concern originally had been looking silly while doing them. Those concerns had been temporarily been overridden by trying to maintain her composure around Kara in a swimsuit, though. She supposed that was something for which to be grateful, though - her effort to not ogle her friend was taking her mind off any self-consciousness she had.

“This is great, Kara,” she said. “Thank you for bringing me along.”

“Of course,” Kara said with a smile. “Have a good time!” She walked over to the end of the lap lanes, hung up her towel, and slipped into the water. She began a freestyle swim that broke the silence in the pool.

Lena used the set of stairs to enter the pool. She braced herself for a shock of cold, but found that the water was pleasantly heated.

Elliott, her physical therapist, had told her to start slowly with 5 minutes of moderate walking in chest-high water, and then to increase her pace for 10 more minutes until she reached what felt like maximum effort. She was to keep that maximum pace for 5 minutes, and then to gradually cool down until she reached 30 full minutes. She had quizzed him about her form and how she should self-assess what felt like maximum effort.

“You know, we have a pool here,” he had said. “You don’t actually need supervision for this, but if you’re worried about getting it right, you can make an appointment and I can join you for your first few sessions.”

Lena had declined, citing her need to maximize her time in the office since the pool at the physical therapy facility didn’t open before 8:00am. While that was true, she didn’t feel the need to share with him that a large part of her motivation for doing her workouts at the National City Natatorium was to be able to spend time with Kara. She had privately been amused at the thought, since Lena had never been a huge fan of working out in general. She had done yoga and spin classes to keep fit when she had time, but the gym wasn’t a daily part of her life.

She wasn’t sure if it was irony or simply good fortune that her friend was apparently one of those gym people. 

She made a focused effort to put thoughts of Kara out of her mind as she walked through the pool, getting used to the motion and how her body moved through the water. As she warmed up her thoughts began to calm. It took focus to maintain her form, especially as she tried to go faster. The rhythmic splashing of Kara’s swimming faded into the background like a metronome, and even the arrival of other swimmers and pool runners didn’t distract Lena. When she reached the part of her workout that Elliott had described as maximum pace, measured by her breathing and heart rate as well as she could approximate, she had no attention to spare for anything else. 

When the full 30 minutes were up, Lena felt the kind of pleasant calm that she most often experienced after a massage. Her calf muscles felt sore but not strained. It felt like a good type of sore, not the insidious pain that she was used to after a day in the office in heels.

She reached for her towel and wrapped it around her body. She wondered for how much longer Kara would swim, and looked over at her lane. While Kara had started out swimming freestyle, she was now doing a different stroke that Lena recognized as the butterfly.

Lena was momentarily dumbstruck. The freestyle stroke was fluid and seemed geared toward making sure the swimmer could slip through the water with the least amount of resistance. Kara’s freestyle hadn’t generated much splashing, and her kicks in particular seemed to take place mostly underwater. 

Kara’s butterfly, in contrast, was a display of power. Her body surged over the top of the water, powerful shoulders emerging from behind in tandem with a kick of her feet to propel her torso over the surface. The downstroke, where her head remained underwater, was no less powerful as her legs kicked, making her body move sinuously.

Lena’s eyes were glued to the motion of Kara’s hips, which pistoned up, down, up, down…

She tore her eyes away, acutely aware that she was staring. The pool wasn’t yet crowded, but there were other people there, and Lena knew that the fair skin on her chest and neck was particularly susceptible to becoming flushed when she was aroused. Lena hoped none of them had seen her gawking and that any coloring on her face could be easily written off as exertion from the exercise.

She walked into the locker room and took a quick shower, keeping the temperature somewhat cooler than she usually liked it. She hurried through getting dressed in the shower stall’s vestibule and was just preparing to start blow-drying her hair when Kara came in from the pool, wrapped in a towel. 

“Hey Lena!” she said cheerfully. “If you’re not in a big rush, do you want to grab coffee before work? I can be ready pretty quick.”

“Sounds good,” Lena replied. She hoped her tone sounded as nonchalant as her words. 

True to her word, Kara was ready just as Lena put the last touches on her makeup. Kara swept her damp hair into a ponytail and packed her towel and swimsuit into her bag as Lena finished up.

“What took you so long,” Kara joked as Lena hoisted her duffel bag on her shoulder.

“Pulchritude takes time,” Lena said loftily, walking past Kara toward the exit.

“Time well spent,” Kara replied. Lena forced herself to not smile, though she was sure a telltale blush was creeping up her neck.

Kara - of course - knew of a food truck nearby that served breakfast tacos. 

“What does your week look like?” Kara asked as they walked back toward Lena’s car. 

“Packed,” Lena said. “The board is coming into town for the quarterly meeting. Tonight we have dinner, and then the next two days will be taken up with the meeting. Then I’ll spend the next two days catching up on everything that piled up while I was doing that.”

“Why does your board meet quarterly?” Kara asked. “The CatCo board only met once a year. I had to order all the catering for it. Those were the days.”

“Was it an all-potsticker menu?”

Kara laughed. “I mean, not totally. We had some mini pizzas too.”

“Maybe I should suggest that to Jess instead of sushi. Anyway, we meet quarterly because for now, it’s the best way to manage their participation.”  
  
“What do you mean? Ms. Grant used to complain that some of her members were only on the board for the prestige. She wanted them to contribute more ideas and help.”

Lena sighed. “Most of my board members joined when Lex was the CEO. I think they’re not sure if my vision aligns with theirs.”

Kara nodded in understanding. “I figured as much when we were doing your interview.”

Lena quieted and frowned. The reminder that Kara was a journalist and that perhaps she shouldn’t speak freely about her work was not a welcome one.

Ever perceptive, Kara noticed.

“What is it?”

“I probably shouldn’t have said that,” Lena said. She considered it progress that she could simply answer Kara’s question, rather than evading it and having Kara drag it out of her. “I mean, I know that things aren’t on the record unless we say so, but it’s still probably better not for me to blur that boundary.”

Kara paused. “I understand what you’re saying. You don’t ever have to talk about anything you don’t want to.”

Lena nodded. “Thank you.”

“I also just want you to know that after the article was published, I talked to Ms. Grant and told her I wouldn’t be writing any more articles about you or L-Corp.”

If Lena hadn’t overheard Kara talking to Cat Grant the day after their livestream, she would have thought Kara was embellishing. However, she could practically hear Cat’s response in her head, and suppressed a snort. 

“And how did that go?”

“She was irritated, but she didn’t fight with me about it.” Kara shrugged.

“Well, you didn’t have to do that on my account,” Lena said. “But I do appreciate knowing it.”

Kara didn’t respond, but just smiled at her as they reached Lena’s car. 

“Have a good day!” Kara said, juggling her coffee and the rest of her breakfast taco to give Lena a one-armed hug.

Lena returned the hug as best she was able, trying not to spill her coffee on Kara. The half-hug felt unsatisfying, and for a moment she considered suggesting they set their coffees down so she could give Kara the type of full-bodied hug she was accustomed to, but rejected that idea as out of place. She wished she could offer Kara a ride to work, ignoring that CatCo was ten minutes out of her way. Kara had her bike, anyway.

Lena felt disgruntled, recognizing that what she wanted was simply more time with Kara. More conversation, more hugs. More everything. The butterflies returned to her stomach as she contemplated what that meant in the split second that she and Kara broke apart.

“You too!” she said, instead of everything else that she wanted to say. She gave herself a stern order to focus. She needed to be on her toes to manage the board this week, and couldn’t allow herself to be distracted. 

“I’ll text you!” Kara said over her shoulder as she strode toward her bike. 

Lena allowed herself an extra second to watch Kara before getting into her car and heading to the office.


	13. Bored Meeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Black lives matter.

Lena’s approach to L-Corp’s quarterly board meetings was similar to that of an Old West sheriff trying to head off bandits at the pass. Like she had told Kara, frequent communication and in-person meetings were her tactic to manage the interference from the board members. She had no doubt that if she had allowed them to become more involved in the day-to-day operations of the company, many of them would gladly have accepted.

Of course, Lena knew their feigned interest stemmed from their not believing she was competent. Her youth and background in the sciences had taken them aback when she first assumed the role. Over the short period of time she had been in charge as she had demonstrated leadership capabilities and business acumen, their initial mistrust had settled into a more subtle, but nonetheless wearying, running commentary on her suitability for the role.

All of that made these board meetings tiresome in the extreme. 

It wouldn’t have felt like such a waste of time if the board was actually contributing anything of value, Lena mused halfway through the first day. She would have welcomed mentorship in the first year of her tenure if she hadn’t been sure that their guidance and advice would have come with strings that contained hidden hooks and barbs. Remaining independent of their influence was always a priority.

The morning’s meeting had focused on a review of recent acquisitions, and it was almost time for lunch. As the general counsel and corporate secretary, Rosa always attended to keep the agenda running and to keep accurate minutes. This time, Sam was also sitting in, ostensibly to provide background on the company’s financials, but also because Lena had an idea that Sam would do well in a future CEO role. While she hadn’t mentioned this to Sam, she had decided to start an informal mentorship program.

Lena had observed some of the board members glancing at the clock as Miles Johnson, a board member with a strong background in marketing, droned on about the most recent acquisition of Veridian Dynamics. 

“The personal assistant modules from their robotics division are especially ripe for advertising. Can you imagine the commercials?” 

“It’s certainly an area we intend to exploit,” she said. “If there’s nothing else, I suggest we break for lunch.”

“Just one other thing,” interjected Rich Burrata, a board member whose background was in finance. “What about the Spheerical Bikes acquisition?”

Lena paused, sensing a trap. 

“We haven’t acquired Speerical Bikes,” she replied. 

“I’m aware,” Rich said. “My question is, why not?”

“L-Corp doesn’t want to own a brick and mortar bike shop in Portland,” Lena said. She tried to keep her tone neutral instead of patronizing. 

Rich waved away her statement. “Obviously,” he said. “I’m talking about the bike they’re producing. Why haven’t we acquired the company and taken over the production?”

“Because L-Corp isn’t in the business of making bikes,” Lena said. 

“Aren’t we in the business of making whatever we say we’re in the business of making?” Rich countered.

Lena shrugged. “We retain the prerogative. This isn’t something I see L-Corp leading on.”

“Why don’t you?”

“Why _do_ you?” Lena countered. 

“The potential income on this bike is huge. Spheerical isn’t just going to sell it from their store. They’ll be selling it on the internet and shipping it all over the country. Hell, all over the world. They can license it to other bike shops and collect a share of the profits. Plus, our agreement gives Spheerical exclusive access to our new carbon fiber for five years. I don’t see why we’re passing on all that income.”

“We’re not,” Lena said.

“Yes, we are! Is this because you went to college with the owner?”

Being constantly belittled by a group of men was one thing. Being accused of nepotism and corruption was quite another. 

“Well, Rich,” Lena said, her patience at an end. “Owning a bike shop and selling bikes directly brings with it a whole extra layer of accountability for the sale. Customer service, responsibility for recalls, consumer product safety notification, warranties - we aren’t in retail and we don’t have any systems in place to handle those. And under the terms of our agreement with Spheerical, we don’t have any responsibility for them either. Nor legal liability.”

Rich made a frustrated face. “Sure, but…”

Lena cut him off. “Not to mention, acquiring the company would mean that we assume fiscal responsibility for assembling the entire bike, rather than just producing the frame.”

“The exclusive means we can’t sell the frame to any other bike producers. It’s artificially depressing the market for this new material.”

“Our five year exclusive agreement with Spheerical is also a five-year contract to produce and sell this bike frame to them. It’s guaranteed recurring revenue. And even at the price point we have, it’s still too expensive for mass market producers like Schwinn until we spend time getting the cost of production down. Which we'll only do if we're manufacturing it steadily for some years, Rich. Without this contract, we have a product with no buyer. Jack believes in the vision of his bike, which is why he was willing to sign it.”

“We’re missing out on a lot of potential revenue from retail sales.”

Lena continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “And finally, the terms of our agreement with Jack Spheer’s company give L-Corp a share of profits from sale of the bike in the first five years. Not just what he pays L-Corp for the frame, but a share of the _retail_ profits on a decreasing schedule over the five years. Which was in the contract I shared with the board two weeks ago.”

Mercifully, Rich remained quiet.

“All in all, Rich, I’d say that L-Corp is making out like a bandit, regardless and probably in spite of my friendship with Jack. As lucrative as this bike will be for Spheerical, it’s less than 1% of L-Corp’s annual gross profits. Acquiring his company would _actually_ incur a loss for L-Corp because of the additional expenses we’d be responsible for assuming."

Lena paused.

"Do you have any other questions?”

Rich shook his head with a sullen look.

“Great. Then let’s break for lunch. Jess has it set up in the atrium. We’ll meet back here at 1pm for the second half of the agenda.”

Rosa and Sam remained in the conference room while the board members filed out. After they had gone, Sam turned toward Lena with her usual directness.

“Well, that was a massacre.”

Lena shrugged. While she wasn’t looking forward to the fallout, she had no regrets.

“I’m not going to apologize,” she said. 

“Of course not,” Sam said. “He deserved it.”

“You’re not going to tell me that it wasn’t diplomatic?”

“Oh, it wasn’t. But it was the right thing to do. He’s a finance guy, and it was glaringly obvious that he hadn’t read the contract he was talking about. If he had, he would have known about the financial upside for L-Corp. He underestimated you, and he won’t do that again. In a weird way, I think it’s going to make him respect you.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Lena said.

“Trust me,” Sam said. “Finance people respect good finance more than manners. I’ll talk to him at lunch. If he's going to be a problem, I'll handle it.” 

“One thing,” Rosa said as Lena and Sam stood up to leave.

“What is it?” Lena was mildly desperate for an afternoon cup of coffee, but Rosa sounded serious. 

“It’s this background check on the new contract lawyer in my department,” Rosa said. “Nicole sent it up this morning.”

Lena suddenly felt alert. Any problem with a background check was a potential problem, and doubly so in the legal department. 

“What’s on it?” she asked. 

“Nothing,” Rosa said. “The standard background check for Lucy Lane was clean. Then Nicole did the new enhanced background check she’s piloting. Her general service record had a few things on it, a couple of times being late, one drunk and disorderly that the MP handled, but her time for the last five years was clean.”

Lena felt confused. “Isn’t that good?”

“You’d think,” Rosa said. “But Nicole thinks it’s weird.”

“Weird how?”

“It’s _too_ perfect. These standard background checks are clean a lot of the time - they mostly just check for arrests, convictions, and outstanding liens. But the enhanced ones almost always turn something up. Even if it was something minor, like getting a parking ticket. And there’s just nothing.”

“She was in the Army JAG. Aren’t they literally a bunch of rule-followers?” Lena didn’t want to be dismissive, but she was struggling to see the urgency. 

“Yes, but Nicole thought it was odd enough to mention to me. I’d like input from both of you.”

“Okay," Lena said, slipping into problem-solving mode. "If I heard correctly, it sounds like around five years ago, Lucy went from being a normal person to being eerily perfect. So what happened?”

“That would have been around the time she went to law school,” Sam said, flipping through the report. “Rosa, did you say her dad’s in the service? They’re a military family?”

Rosa nodded. 

“Maybe when she got busted by the military police for being drunk, her dad found out, and I don’t know, sent her to rehab or something. Maybe she had some epiphany about screwing up her life and resolved to never move a toe out of line again.”

“So you think it’s nothing?” Lena asked.

“Oh, I didn’t say that,” Sam replied. “I’ve seen the kinds of things Nicole’s enhanced background checks turn up. I shudder to think if she ever ran one on me. There’s literally nothing here. That would be one hell of a rehab.”

“Was her discharge an issue?”

“It says honorable,” Rosa said. “That was the first thing Nicole looked into. Which she thought was weird in and of itself. Who leaves a successful career in the Army because she wants to _‘find herself’_?”

“It happens,” Sam said. “Lord knows, more people in this world would be happy if they didn’t keep trying to force themselves to stay in a job they hate.”

Lena knew she had to make some kind of decision. “Well, it could be something completely innocent, or it could be worth looking into. Ideas?”

“Nicole wants to monitor her digital footprint in real time on the company technology systems,” Rosa said.

“Spy on her, you mean.”

“Well, yes.”

It wasn’t technically illegal, Lena knew. L-Corp owned all the technology that employees used, and it was well within the company’s rights to monitor what employees did with their computers and credentials. For the most part, the IT team aggregated data about websites visited, applications launched, and active versus passive time spent on the network. Nicole presented some variation of this data every quarter at the company meeting, usually in the form of bar charts showing the top 10 websites accessed by L-Corp employees. 

Lena knew that some portion of her employees’ time would be spent using personal email, reading the news or even shopping, and that in some cases it would make her employees more productive if they could take brief digital breaks during the day. But knowing that this data was tracked and that the company could drill down if they noticed something out of the ordinary - like porn sites, for example - tended to encourage employees not to abuse the privilege.

What Nicole wanted to do was drastically different. Monitoring in real time meant that the IT department would track every single thing Lucy typed, opened, and submitted on her computer in the L-Corp office. It made her uneasy in and of itself, but also because Lucy was a friend of Kara’s. Lena reflected that was probably even more of a reason not to let her personal feelings interfere with the security of her company. 

“What do you think, Rosa?”

Rosa hesitated. “I’m not sure. She’s a damn good lawyer, and she’s already helped clear out some of the backlog we’ve been dealing with. She’s friendly, but not obsequious. She doesn’t ask a bunch of questions that raise any alarm bells for me. But at the same time, Nicole was almost apoplectic when she saw this background check. She said it didn’t seem real, like the person it was reporting on was just a facade. And I trust Nicole. I think we should do it.”

“And if she’s not up to anything nefarious, then no harm, no foul,” Sam said. 

Lena gave her a droll look. “That’s what dictatorial governments say.”

Sam shrugged. “We’re a corporation, not the government.”

“That we are,” Lena said. She sighed. “Tell Nicole she can do it - for this week only. If she doesn’t notice anything suspicious by Friday, she’s to discontinue. And I want to be notified right away if she finds anything.”

“You got it,” Rosa said. “The last thing I need is another problem in legal.”

“Corrupt lawyers, who woulda thunk it?” Sam said as she walked toward the door.

Rosa gave Sam the finger as they walked out of the conference room.

Lena took an extra moment for herself before going to the atrium for lunch. She picked up her phone, intending to check her email, but noticed that she had a text message.

 **Kara D (11:02am):** hey lena! winn and i are meeting lucy for lunch at your building today. do you want to join us?

 **Lena L (12:13pm):** Thanks, but I won’t be able to. We’re having a board meeting. 

**Kara D (12:13pm):** oh right, i forgot! how's it going? 

**Lena L (12:14pm):** It’s like having my eyeballs scraped out with a grapefruit spoon, but otherwise fine.

 **Kara D (12:14pm):** :^O

 **Kara D (12:14pm):** never eating grapefruit again

 **Lena L (12:15pm):** Not even on pizza?

 **Kara D (12:15pm):** omg lena no

 **Lena L (12:15pm):** Tsk tsk! I thought you were adventurous about food.

 **Kara D (12:16pm):** this is a new side of you

 **Lena L (12:16pm):** I get testy when I have to spend hours locked in a room with a bunch of stuffed shirts.

 **Lena L (12:16pm):** (Delete these texts!!!)

 **Kara D (12:16pm):** okay well, you're having lunch with us once all this board meeting biz is over. we need a fourth for euchre

 **Lena L (12:17pm):** Ah, so you only want me for my luck at games of chance.

 **Kara D (12:17pm):** euchre is a game of skill, lena

 **Lena L (12:17pm):** It most certainly is not.

 **Kara D (12:17pm):** i gotta go, winn and lucy are bugging me to stop ignoring them. we will settle this over cards and non-grapefruit pizza.

 **Lena L (12:18pm):** But with extra eyeballs.

**Kara D (12:18pm): 🤮**

**Lena L (12:18pm):** 👀 


End file.
